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THE 

TOURIST. 

DESCRZFTIVZS OF THE SCSIffERV 

OF THE 

MOHAWK & HUDSON RIVERS. 



FALLS, LAKES, MOUNTAINS, SPRINGS, 
RAIL ROADS & CANALS. 

WITH MAPS AND VIEWS. 




A. T. GOODRICH, ASTOR HOUSE, 

No. 2, Barclay Street. \ 

GEOGRAPHICAL ESTABLISHMENT AND BOOK STORE. I 



1840. 



• M^,*-cOk'^^f^V^ '^ 



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Entered according to the Act of Congress, 

in the year 1840, by 

A. T. GOODRICH, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United 

States, for the Southern District of New York. 



'7*- y>^> 



^i: 



THE 



-NORTH AMERICAN TOURIST. 



PART FIRST, 



ROUTES IJ\' JVBWmirOnMy 

rO THE 

^^PRINGS, LAKES, FALLS, MOUNTAINS, 

HUDSON RIVER. &c. 



The Hudson River. 



The sources of this river are in 44° N. latitude, in a se- 
ries of lakes in Essex and Hamilton counties, that lie in 
the mountainous and unfrequented region between Lake 
Champlain, the Mohawk River, St. Lawrence River, and. 
Lake Ontario. The main, or north branch, rises 30 miles 
N. W. from Crown Point; the Sacondaga, or west branch, 
rises 30 to 40 miles W. of Lake George, and both branches 
unite on the eastern side of Saratoga county, in the town 
of Hadiey, near the celebrated falls of that name. From 
thence, the course is southerly for a few miles, and then 
east, to Glenn's Falls, beyond which it turns south, and 
pursues a course varying but little from N. to S. nearly all 
the distance to the ocean, from which circumstance it de- 
rives its usual, but incorrect appellation of the North 
River. 

In many points of view, it may be considered one of the 
most important streams in the world for its extent, and only, 
if at all, inferior in usefulness to the Ohio and Mississippi 
Rivers, but superior to them for steam-boat navigation, viz 
in the most remarkable circumstance, and exclusively cha 



4 Hudssn River. 

racteristic of the Hudson River from every other stream in 
this country — its penetrating through the chain of high- 
lands, and being affected by the tides as far as Troy, IGO 
miles north, thus carrying the oceanic influence far into 
the interior, and yielding the greatest facilities to com- 
merce. 

The depth of water is sufficient for ship navigation as 
far as Hudson ; and beyond that, for sloops and steam- 
boats to Albany and Troy. It is closed by ice from the 
10th or 20th of December'io about the lOth of March, with 
occasional exceptions ; but the harbor and bay of New- York 
are always open, so that vessels can enter and depart at any 
period of the winter, while the harbors of Boston, Phila- 
delphia, and Baltimore, are entirely closed for M'^eeks. This 
is one of the principal causes of the preference given to 
New- York, as a sea-port, beyond any other on this coast, 
except Newport. Ships, with a fair wind and tide, can get 
to sea in one hour and thirty minutes after leaving the 
Avharf ; the distance from the city by ship channel to Sandy 
Hook light-house being only 18 miles. 

The width of the river for 25 miles N. from New- York, 
is about one mile, bounded on the west by precipices of trap 
or green stone, from 200, and rising gradually to 500 feet in 
height. Beyond these, there is an expansion of the river to 
the width of 4 miles, called Tappan and Haversiraw bays, 
with the mountains on the western shore rising boldly to 
700 feet in height. 

The traveler then enters into the romantic region of the 
highlands, where the river is contracted into narrower 
limits, but is of greater depth, and the mountains rise on 
both sides with abruptness from nine to sixteen hundred 
feet in height. At West Point, the river turns suddenly, at 
right angles, to its previous course, and soon displays an 
opening between the mountains on the north, beyond 
which the country subsides into a fertile, but hilly region, 
which coniinues for a hundred miles, with a noble view of 
the Catskill, or spur of the Allegany Mountains, at the dis- 
tance of 8 or 10 miles. 

Such are the attraciions possessed by this noble river, that 
it annually allures thousands of strangers ; and this, in con- 
nection with the canal navigation, the summer visiters to 
the Springs, the Lakes, and to the Falls of Niagara, causes 
the sum of one or more millions of dollars to be expended 



Hudsoits Voyages, SfC. 6 

in this state every year, and forms a very considerable item 
in the prosperity and resources of the city and country. 

The Hudson River, in connection with LakeChamplain, 
has always been the great highway to Canada, and the path 
or channel of military enterprise. 

There are 15 to 20 steam-boats, of various sizes, plying 
from New- York to Albany, and other places on the river ; 
their passage to Albany is now effected in 10 to 12 hours ! 

There are several falls on the river, viz. — Baker's Falls, 
Glenn's Falls, Hadley Falls, and others of less note. The 
sources of the river have never been fully surveyed ; but 
the granitic region thereabouts undoubtedly contains many 
fine landscapes and scenes that will soon be better known. 
Its entire length may be estimated at 300 miles. Its only 
tributary stream of any magnitude is the Mohawk River, 
that falls in from the west, at Waterford, which rises 120 
miles distant, in the county of Oneida. On this are the 
Cohoes Falls, and the Little Falls; and on West Canada 
Creek, emptying into the Mohawk, are the celebrated Tren- 
ton Falls, that deservedly rank high in public estimation. 

As a navigable arm of the sea, and the chief cause of the 
prosperity of this great metropolis, the Hudson River can- 
not be too highly estimated ; and when viewed as the con- 
necting means of our great system of inland navigation, 
and with the Lakes, from Buffalo to Detroit, Michilimacki- 
nac, Green Bay, Chicago, and we soon may be enabled to 
say, through the Illinois River to St. Louis and New-Or- 
leans, and also by a canal round the Sault St. Mary with 
the distant shores of Lake Superior, we can hardly appre- 
ciate the extent of inland trade that may, at no distant day, 
visit this commercial metropolis of the United States. 



Henry Hudson. 



Little is known of the eventful life of the celebrated na- 
vigator Henry Hudson, except that he was an Englishman, 
born in 1569, of good education, and an experienced and 
bold seaman. He early entered into a maritime life, and 
soon attained a distinguished rank in his profession. He 
resided in London, and had a family ; and his only son, a 
1* 



6 Hudson's Voyages, S^'C 

youth of great promise, shared with him in all his perils. 
His first voyage of discovery was in 1607, when he sailed 
from Gravesend to the coast of Greenland, and made im- 
portant discoveries, and returned in safety. The next year 
he made a voyage to the northern regions. Both of the 
foregoing voyages were made by him in the employment 
of a company of merchants at London; but they not wish- 
ing his services any longer, Hudson went to Holland, and 
entered into the service of the Dutch East India Company, 
who provided him with a small ship called the Half Moon, 
and a crew of 20 men. He left Amsterdam on the 4th of 
April, 1609, and after sailing along the coast of America, 
and touching in different places, he entered the bay inside 
of Sandy Hook, on the 3d of September, and devoted one 
month to the exploring of the coast in the vicinity, and in 
ascending the river that bears his name. His narrative is 
full of interest, and his voyage and adventures up the river, 
and his intercourse with Ihe natives, are told in a faithful 
and descriptive manner, but our limits will not admit of any 
minute details. The reader that is desirous of farther in- 
formation on this subject, is referred to the eloquent descrip- 
tion in Moulton's History of this State, which does full 
justice to it. 

The island of Manhattan, at that period, presented a 
wild and rough aspect ; a thick forest covered those parts 
of it where vegetation could find support; its beach was 
broken and rocky, and had several inlets; the interior was 
hilly, with occasional rocks, swamps, and ponds. All traces 
of this roughness have long since disappeared from the 
southern part of the island, where the citv is now built, and 
great inroads have been made on all sides into the waters 
of the harbor; but to the curious, a lively idea may still be 
given of what was formerly the appearance on the city's 
site, by examinins: the interior of the island, 5 or 6 miles 
north, on the middle road, or the 3d and 8ih avenues, es- 
peciadv the latter, and also on the banks of the Hudson and 
East Rivers, by which may be discovered the immense la- 
bor and expense that have been bestowed by preceding 
generations, in altering the natural appearance of this 
island. 

Hudson, on his return, was forced to put into England 
by his crew, of whom a part were natives of that country, 
and he subsequently perished on a voyage to the great bay 
that bears his name, by the mutiny of some of his sailors. 



Hohoken and New- York. 



Excursion up the Hudson River. 

On leaving the city in any of the steam-boats for the 
north, the traveler for pleasure should, if on his Jirst 
trip, by all means prefer the morning boats, at 7 A. JM. ? 
for the sake of enjoying the splendid scenery in perfection, 
and select on ihe upper deck a suitable position near the 
after part of the boat, and facing to the north, so as to 
glance readily at objects that may attract his attention on 
either shore. 

For twenty-five miles after leaving New-York the river 
is very near one mile in width, and then for the next twen- 
ty expands to three or four times that width before enter- 
ing the portals of the Highlands. 

In passing by fifteen streets from Courtlandt-street, or 
twelve from Barclay- street, we are opposite the extensive 
steam-engine shops' of Kemble and Gouverneur, and the 
lofty spire seen a short distance in the rear is that of St. 
John^s Church, that faces on Hudson-square, one of the few 
that ornament the city. 

The sixth street beyond, as we proceed, is Canal-street, 
leading into the heart of the metropolis; and opposite we 
see, on the west side of the Hudson river, a mile above 
Jersey city or Fowles Hook, (where the rail- road begins 
leading: to Newark and intermediate cities to Philadelphia,) 
the village of Hoboken, with its green lawns, shady re- 
cesses, and embowered walks leading along the shore to 
and beyond the seat of the Stevens family, of celebrated 
memory in the history of American steam-boats. The fami- 
ly mansion is seen on the summit of the rocky knoll ; and 
the surrounding and embellished grounds have a bold front 
of a mile on the river, carefully protected bv stone embank- 
ment; the artificial and shaded winding walks are gratui- 
tously thrown open to the public by the liberal and en- 
lightened proprietor, in their whole extent of unrivalled 
beauty. Mr. S. is also the one on whom the mantle of 
Fulton may be said to have fallen, and his countrymen 
have already witnessed and enjoyed the fruits of his in- 
ventive genius. 

In the rear of the low grounds that environ Mr. Stevens* 
property on the west, is the village of West Hoboken, that, 



8 ' New- York and Weehaxcken. 

from its elevated and prominent situation on the brow of the 
Bergen ridge, commands a fine view of the city, harbor, 
and surrounding couniry. The Beaco7i Race-Course is on 
the hill to the south of the adjommg wood. The ridge rises 
rapidly as it extends to the north, and sweeps forward in a 
bold and graceful curve towards the Hudson at Weehawken, 
where commences the remarkable ridge of trap-rock, the 
Palisades. 

Ten streets or blocks north of Canal-street, we pass a 
massive-looking building with a dome or observatory, and 
a semi-circular colonnade to the south entrance, being a 
moiety of the old State Prison, now altered and improved, 
and used for public or benevolent purposes, the property of 
a wealthy citizen, Mr. L . 

If far enough out towards the middle of the stream, we 
can discern, in passing along the front of the city, the tower- 
ing and castellated summits of the JSew-York University, 
that is situated several blocks towards the interior of the 
city facing on Washington-square ; and also the domes of 
the two reservoirs of water in 13th-street, near Union- 
square. 

After passing fourteen more streets or blocks, we notice 
the tall chimney of the Manhattan Gas Works, ninety feet 
high, and on the third and fourth blocks beyond, the hand- 
some gothic spire and Episcopal church of St. Peters, and 
the Episcopal Theological Seminary, and the insulated 
mansion of Clement Moore, Esq, together with many other 
comfortable residences of wealthy citizens on the northern 
confines of the city ; and in twelve more blocks we pass the 
New- York Chemical Works, and the Asylum for the Blind 
on the 8th and 9th Avenues, on an elevation back from the 
river. The Timber Basin for enclosing floating logs and 
rafts projects out awkwardly between 36ih and 45ih streets, 
and we are now fairly beyond the outskirts of the great me- 
tropolis, and must again glance our eye to the western 
shore. 

The spacious stone mansion that surmounts the brow of 
the beginning of the Palisades, is the country residence of 
James G. King, Esq. the Wall-street banker, and occupies 
one of the most commanding sites in the vicinity of New- 
York, looking forth on the river below, the city and 
harbor, and through the Narrows to the Atlantic Ocean. 
There are several neat villas of less pretension exhibited 



Fort Washington and Fort Lee. 9 

along the summit ridge as we continue on, and others at 
the foot, or on the slope, or curiously nestled in ravines in 
close proximity to masses of rock that impend over or 
surround them. Just before arriving at Bull's Ferry we see 
on the summit the mansion of William Cooper, Esq. an 
eminent naturalist, and one of the founders of the Ly- 
ceum of Natural History of New-York. On the opposite 
shore, observe the new building, the Orphan Asylum, 
removed to this beautiful site from its former location in 
Greenwich. 

Many strikingly beautiful country seats of wealthy and 
comfortable citizens present themselves in agreeable suc- 
cession for ten miles on the eastern or New-York side of the 
river. The narrowest pass on the Hudson below the High- 
lands is the rocky and acute projection beneath Fort Wash- 
ington, and nearly opposite to Fort Lee. A large body of 
American troops in 1777 were embodied near the city of 
New-York, when it was captured by the British army after 
the battle on Long-Island, vvhen our army was withdrawn, 
and a force of two or three thousand of American mi- 
litia, was left to defend the weak and straggling lines that 
had been erected on and around the brow of the hill 
of Mount Washington, but they were incapable of a 
prolonged defence ; the Hessians advanced from the east 
or Harlsem side in overpowering numbers, and carried the 
•works at the point of the bayonet ; the retreat of the Ame- 
ricans being cut off in every direction, they were slaugh- 
tered in cold blood by the foreign mercenaries, or held in 
captivity during the war on board the noted prison-ship 
in the Wallaboght, where hundreds fell victims to suffering 
and disease. There are very slight remains to be seen of 
these revolutionary field-works. The writer has often trod 
upon the hallowed spot before the erection of the present 
showy, and gay, and jaunty-looking mansions that are now 
seen there, one of them on the side-slope, being an hotel. 
The view from the crown of the hill extends for twenty 
miles up, and the same down the river; and eastward to 
Lons:-Island Sound and the Hempstead hills, the elevation 
is 238 feet ; the height of the opposite cliffs at Fort Lee land- 
ing i^^W feet. The latter is an admired place of resort, 
and is fast jiaining upon the knowledge and good will of the 
worthy citizens that venture thus far in the steam-boat, and 
ascend to the summit of the noble bluff, and look around 



10 Summit of ike Palisades. 

and beneath them. Perchance they stray a few miles, or 
lounge along near the brow of this lovely terrace, that as 
yet remains in all its pristine wildness and beauty. Long 
may it thus continue. A path leads along the summit of 
this noble terrace, on a smooth green sward, winding among 
evergreens and oaks mile after mile, now approaching to 
the edge of the precipice, and from salient angles exhibiting 
a series of bird's eye, profile, and plunging views, down and 
along this immense and irregular wall of trap-rock; after 
recoiling from the startling and sudden view of the abyss, 
we are led onward, by a succession of these wonderfully 
line views that enchain the admiration of the artist and the 
lover of the grand works of nature, and can follow this path 
near the very brink for fifteen or twenty miles, and find the 
scene perpetually changing and presenting some new and 
striking leature of sublimity. Occasionally some rapid 
brawling stream or slight gurgling brook will dash along 
the path, and leap over the steep descent, but no serious 
impediment is thus presented to the active pedestrian in 
this prolonged ramble, but rather an additional excitement 
and pleasure. 

The face of the summit is sufficiently clothed with a va- 
riety of forest trees, shrubbery, and flowers, to delight and 
amuse the botanist; the rocks here and there protrude 
through the surface of the soil, where the water courses 
and exposure to the rough and beating storms from the 
north-east have worn down to the hard and solid rock; yet 
good farms and rich gardens are found spread over its sur- 
face, on various slopes, away from the edge of the eastern 
face, and threading our way over the hill now ascending or 
descending, we find in a mile or two to the west, clearings 
admitting an extensive view over the distant borders of the 
Hackensack, and an admirable aerial perspective through 
the blue vapor to the chain of hills in the interior of New 
Jersey. 

The Asylum for Lunatics at Manhattanville occupies a 
commanding position a few rods from the east bank of the 
river, and has seventy acres of ground annexed, with am- 
ple range for the inmates about the lawns, gardens, and 
pleasure-grounds. The leading principle of the system of 
management being of the most improved and humane de- 
scription, and thus far with the happiest effect. The State 
of New- York has made liberal donations to this insiitu- 



Yonkers. 11 

Hon. For a fall description of this and other public build- 
ings in the metropolis, see the Picture of New- York and 
Stranger's Guide, by Goodrich. 

Beyond the ruins of Fort Washington the heights of 
Harlaein are seen to skirt upon the river, and to trend away 
to the south-east along the southern side of the Spuyten 
Duyvel, or the inlet from Hurlgate to the Hudson, that in- 
sulates the island of Manhattan from the main, and that is 
crossed, at or near its eastern extremity, by a wooden 
bridge, at the termination of the Third Avenue and the via- 
duct leading from the Harlsem railroad to Albany, and 
also by the aqueduct from the Croton River, from whence 
the water is led down near the river road, along the height 
of land, for forty miles, and comes out opposite Harlaem 
heights, at 114 feet above tide water. This costly work is 
destined to last for ages, and to be of immense importance 
to the health and welfare of the city, and the total expense 
ten millions of dollars. The various excavations, tunnels, 
arches, embankments, superstructures, &c. are highly 
worthy of the minute examination of every stranger and 
curious visiter, and for full particulars reference may be 
had to the Picture of New- York as before mentioned. 



Pliillipsburg^h, or Yonkcrs* 



Seventeen miles from New-York, at the mouth of a small 
stream called the Sawmill River, next occurs on the east 
shore, and as it is deeply nestled in the vale, the stranger 
will be apt to overlook it, unless the boat should hug the 
shore on that side. The spire of the Village church, peer- 
ing up from amid the trees, and ruling over the quietness 
an^d seclusion of the old Dutch settlement, with its water- 
fall, mills, and comfortable abodes, neat lawns asd gardens, 
is quite a picture; but if the boat keep too far out in the 
stream, as usual, much of this elfect and feeling is lost ; but 
if the traveler will, at this spot, direct his attention to the 
line of the Palisades on the opposite or west shore, he will 
behold the highest part of the range 517 to 550 feet high : 
the summit even and regular as the cornice of a house, the 
entire facade like the ruins of an ancient feudal castle, or- 



13 Facade of the Palisadea. 

namenled with the moss and hue of antiquity. The next 
hundred years will present, on the crowning ridge of the 
majestic Palisades, one of the most imposing assemblages 
of elegant and substantial mansions that the world can dis- 
play, and will be a suitable finish to such a commandinjj 
elevation. Our prophecy is already begun to be fulfilled 
in part, twenty miles below, at Bergen, Hoboken, and 
Weehawken. 

Taking a retrospective profile view of the west shore when 
approaching the termination where the precipice subsides 
opposite Dobb's Ferry landing, or Hastings or Greenbush, the 
singular effect will be noticed that is produced by the gra- 
dual diminution of the height from north to south, adding 
to and distorting the regular perspective effect agreeable 
lo the laws of vision— but the vista, nevertheless, is grand 
and unrivalled ; and when viewed in various aspects, in 
the bright morning sun, or the coming shadows of evening,^ 
or tipt or shrouded with mist, or in the mild effulgence of 
the full orbed moon, new sources of beauty are noticed 
and elicited, equally gratifying and surprising to the ob- 
server of the picturesque in nature. 

This rugged-looking mass of rock, that seems to defy the 
thought of scaling its frowning and severe walls, may be as- 
cended in a few places ; and at Closter landing, opposite 
Phillipsburgh, a country road exists and extends up by 
several zig-zag and sharp turns, and ascends to the summit 
level and leads to the secluded valley on the western slope 
of the English (Dutch) Neighborhood along the Hackcn- 
sack River. 

The boundary line of New-York and New Jersey strikes 
off to the N. VV. from about the highest place of the pali- 
sade range ; and from the first dock north, a path branches 
to the left, or south, by which the pedestrian may, by fol- 
lowing for a mile or two, reach the summit of the hill, pant- 
ing with his exertion, and be fully rewarded by the panora- 
mic scene before him. 

At about 2*2 miles from New-York we enter upon the 
first change in the usual width of the Hudson River ; the 
shores recede on each side, and leave an expansion three 
miles broad, known by the high sounding name of the 
Tappan Sea, and especially commended to the notice of the 
Traveler from historical and literary associations. The 
fields on each border of the river, especially on the east, in 



Tappan—W. Irving. 13 

the county of West Chester, were the neutral grouBd, or 
scene of border operations during the American war, when 
the enemy held possession of New-York and sent out their 
foraging and marauding parties; and the tale ofmany a bor- 
der story and feat of arms is associated with the hills and 
valleys around the range of our view, this being a hazardous 
region for both parties, and more particularly for whig and 
tory, militia and cow-boys. Spies were employed on both 
sides, and when caught, as Major Andre had the ill luck to 
be, near the village here in plain sight on the east, called 
Tarrytown, and carried over the river to Tappan, about 
three miles up the hill west of the landing, and hung; it 
was no more than the fortune of war, and to be expected 
by all that ventured on such a graceless employment. 

The literary reminiscences alluded to are of more re- 
cent origin, and of a much more agreeable character, 
being the emanations of the popular American author, 
Washington Irving. His country seat is appropriately and 
judiciously placed near the margin of the Hudson, and amid 
the very scenes immortalized in portions of his most face- 
tious Knickerbocker and his inimitable Sketch Book. His 
villa is on the eastside of the river, about 25 miles from 
New-York, and may be pointed out to the eager eyes 
of the inquisitive traveler as of moderate dimensions, 
and with queer gables in the Dutch style, with a neat 
lawn and grounds environing it, and is within a short 
distance of Tarrytown, and of the Dutch Church, bridge, 
and pond in the valley of Sleepy-hollow, of Ichabod Crane 
memory. 

The great rail-road projected from the Hudson River to 
Lake Erie, will commence at the landing at the west side 
the Slote, a mile above the Palisades, and follow the ravine 
up to the west and north-west, near the border line of New 
Jersey. 



IVyack, 



twenty-five miles i"rom New-York, the next village north of 
Tappan, has a landing, and a road that leads over the moun- 
tain to the interior of Rockland county. The red sand- 
stone was formerly quarried in abundance in this vicinity 

9. 



14 Nyack — Sing Sing — Croton. 

for the city market, until the eastern granite and the mar- 
ble of West Chester county supplanted it in the favor of 
the public. The large State Prison at Sing-Sing, on the 
immediate bank of the river on the east shore, is an exten- 
sive construction of the marble above alluded to and reared 
by the convicts, and is capable of celling or caging one thou- 
sand, side by side and tier on tier, like a hive of bees. The 
system of discipline here pursued is rigid, and exacting strict 
silence, severe labor, and solitary confinement at night. 



Crotoii River 

comes in about 2 miles above Sing- Sing, and supplies at 
times a considerable volume of water to ihe Hudson in 
the sprins: season. It rises in Putnam county, in the High- 
lands east of the Hudson, near the Connecticut line, in Pa- 
terson, Kent, and South East ; and has its sources in pure 
ponds in a granite region ; and after running in a south-west- 
ern direction for about forty miles through North Salem, 
Somers, Bedford, Yorktown, and Cortlandt, what then re- 
mains of the water after a portion of it being diverted and 
taken off to supply the large reservoirs and thirsty popula- 
tion, and to cleanse the dusty streets of the great metropo- 
lis, forty miles below, falls into the noble Hudson at Teller's 
Point, and has there formed a mass of earth and stones, that 
the rapid freshets of the Croton have accumulated into a 
respectable isthmus or prolongation of land that intrudes 
out a mile from the east towards the western shore, and 
thus distinctly separates the Tappan from the Haverstraw 
bay. 



Vredidicker Hook, 

a bold headland that rises majestically from the wafer 
on the west shore between the villages of Nyack and Ha- 
verstraw, is 668 feet in height, and stretches gracefully out 
to meet the low land from the eastern shore, and forms a 
distinct point of demarcation between the upper and lower 



Vredidieker Mountain and Lake — Haver straw Bay. 15 

prominent mass of rock on the western shore from the 
southern point of Bergen ia New Jersey, where it dips be- 
neath the waves of the Kills, as we proceed up the Hudson, 
attains gradually a greater elevation, as will be seen as 
we proceed in our course through the Highlands and to the 
Cattskills, where " Alps on Alps arise," and thus prepares 
the astonished and delighted traveler, by mild and succes- 
sive gradations of increasing height, grandeur, and subli- 
mity, for the more imposing and delightful scenes that will 
now soon be disclosed. 

On the Vredidiker mountain is a clear crystal lake of three 
or four miles in circumference, that forms the source of the 
Hackensack River, and although not more than a short mile 
from the Hudson, is elevated above it about two hundred 
and fifty feet; and if the traveler notices a depression of the 
ridge above at the first landing, after passing close beneath 
the Vredidiker mountain, with a steep road ascending the 
hill, he will have the locality in view, as the lake is there in 
that direction ; and the pure clear Rockland ice that is sup- 
plied to the citizens of New- York, is produced at this spot, by 
the unmitigated and prolonged severity of the Siberian cli- 
mate of this exposure; and the delicious ice-creams and the 
wicked bowls of punch that are consumed in New- York 
owe their charms in a large degree to the reservoir of ice 
that is here cut out in huge blocks, and slid down to the 
level of the river below, and when the river breaks up, vast 
stores of this commodity are transported to the city. 

We now glide rapidly past the Vredidieker, into a second 
expansion of the Hudson, the Haverstraw Bay, of about the 
same size as the previous one that we have left behind us, 
and our course, that, soon after leaving the city, had for 
twenty miles been nearly due north until we past the Pali- 
sades and the Sea of Tappan, now assumes, for the ensuing 
ten miles, a north-west direction, and gives us leisure 
to cast a retrospective glance towards the smooth bay we 
have just left behind us, and the fast receding outlines of the 
distant Palisades, fading into the dim blue haze of the hori- 
zon, with its beautiful aerial tints ; our attention will now 
be directed to the extensive panorama that surrounds us, 
to the singular crest and form of the mountain-top on the 
west shore, known as the High Torii, about eight hundred 
feet in height, (and a remarkable and distinct landmark 
even from as low down as Newark bay, and the hills of 



16 Stony Point— Verplanck' s Point. 

Staten Island and New Jersey,) with the village of Ha- 
verstraw or Warren at the base, and the fine curved line 
of the shores and slopes of the hills on each side as we ap- 
proach the landings of Grassy Point on the west, and Ver- 
plancJc's on the east, and the light- house on Stony Point oppo- 
site. This eminence is memorable for the bloody assault made 
upon it during the revolutionary war by Gen. Wayne and 
his brave American troops, that were detached for that pur- 
pose by Gen. Washington, from the forces at West Point, 
and after making a detour among the hills for twenty miles, 
approached this pcsi (then held by the enemy, and strong- 
ly fortified and manned) and stealthily and in the profound 
silence and darkness of midnight, with fixed bayonets and 
unriinted guns, surprised ihe unwary sentinels and dis- 
tant out-posts, advanced suddenly to the attack, cut down 
the pickets, entered and carried the works by a coup de 
main, without firing a gun, and made prisoners of the gar- 
rison, sparing all that threw down their arms. The ene- 
my also at the same time held possession of the fort across 
the river at Verplanck's Point, and the next day a warm 
exchange of cannon balls took place, that resulted in the 
evacuation of Stony Point by the American troops that 
had so gallantly captured it ; as a much superior force of 
ihe enemy M'as advancing upon ihem, and it was useless to 
resist the combined attack that was preparing by the Brit- 
ish force by land and water. The fort was demo'lished, and 
the military stores taken away:— thus it had alternately 
been taken originally from Wayne by the British, then re- 
captured by him, and again retaken by the enemy, and held 
during the war. 

Having entered the portals, and here rapidly drawing 
near the most interesting scenery of the Highlands, we re- 
commend the traveler at this time, when about forty miles 
from New- York, for the sake of having an unobstructed 
view, to assume a position on the upper deck on the forward 
part, and to make a diligent use of his eyes in viewing 
the objects and leading features that pass in such rapid 
review. 

The Dunderberg, or Dunderbarrack, or Thunder moun- 
tain on the west, is nine hundred feet high, and ranges for 
several miles from south-west to north-east, and from its 
rounded and comm.anding summit, is a very extensive view 
over the county of Westchester to Long Island Sound, and 



Dunderberg- Mountain — Fort Clinton, Sft. 17 

down the river and bays that we have passed, to the vicini- 
ty of New- York, and across the east side of the Hudson to 
Peekskill, and the mountains in Putnam county, and the 
summits around West Point. The village of Caldwell, or 
Gibraltar, as sometimes called, is at the base of the moun- 
tain, and is usually the first ]andin,£;-place for the large Al- 
bany boats after leaving the city of New-York, and where 
the Peekskill passengers disembark. 

One ttiat has never before ascended the Hudson River, 
would here be at a loss to conjecture from this position, as 
he looks around and is apparently embayed, in what direc- 
tion to look for extrication from this ad de sac; whether 
through the deep opening to the right, or the one in front 
leading through the vista in the mountains; — after being 
kept in agreeable suspense for a few minutes while near the 
Caldwell landing, and gazing up at the stupendous eleva- 
tion close at hand, that the steamer almost brushes or gra- 
zes in its panting and rapid course, the boat suddenly is di- 
rected to the left or west, round the acute point or angle 
that opens into the race, a short reach of the river between 
the Dunderberg on the south, and St. Anthony's, the next 
point on the north. 

After advancing for a few minutes to the west, when 
near the Salisbury island, do not omit to observe the 
grandeur produced by the amphitheatrical slope and ter- 
mination of the Dunderberg mountain on the left, with 
its hardy covering of evergreen trees, the pines or ce- 
dars, that here fill up an angle of several degrees above 
the horizon as we pass within shadow of the reflection in 
the deep water at its base ; or the towering front of the Bare 
Mountain, that here presents its majestic elevation on the 
west, of one thousand three hundred and fifty feet. Polo- 
per's creek, a small mill-stream, that has its origin a few 
miles in the interior of Rockland county, finds its way 
through the dark ravine down to the base of the mountain, 
and forms a secluded basin or harbor for the small river 
sloops that frequent the mills and landing to load with flour 
and wood. 

Each side of the creek on the crest of the hill, are the re- 
mains of two field-works, forts Clinton and Montgomery, 
erected during the war of the revolution, as a part of the 
system planned for the defence of the Highlands. In the 
afiair that here transpired, October, 1777, several hundred 
2* 



18 ■ Anthony^ s Nose. 

men fell in the attack and defence of this mountain pass on 
the banks of the Hudson. Sir Henry Clinton led the at- 
tack, and destroyed the large boom and chain that cost se- 
venty thousand pounds sterling, and another of less value at 
fort Constitution. This first massive boom and iron chain, 
was extended across from the east to the west shore oppo- 
site to the point of St. Anthony, and under the guns of 
forts opposite, in the vain attempt to stop, or momenta- 
rily impede the progress of the large armed ships of the 
enemy, in their advance up the river with troops to aid 
Burgoyne, and to burn the towns above. But this was 
money wasted on both sides, for the chain did not accom- 
plish its intention, although it cost an immense sum of 
money, and the union with Burgoyne was not effected. 

The bloody affair in this mountain fastness resulted in 
the capture of the place by the enemy at the point of the 
bayonet, after the garrison of only six hundred men had 
made a gallant defence against a very superior force (three 
thousand) that came upon them unawares. 

It was upon this occasion that George Clinton, one of the 
officers in command, Governor of New- York, and subse- 
quently Vice-President of the United States, succeeded in 
making his escape in the dusk of eve in a boat, and his 
brother James also, though wounded, by plunging into the 
Hudson and swimming to the opposite shore. 

Anthoni/s Nose, on the right or east shore, that rears its 
much admired pyramidical-shaped mass of rocks to an ele- 
vation of eleven hundred and twenty-eight feet, at an angle 
estimated at forty- five or fifty degrees from the level of the 
noble river that deeply skirts its base, and terminates the 
reach called the Race, introduces us to another of the 
lovely changes in the scenery of this famous region, when 
the traveler is enabled by "the progress of the steamer to 
turn the sharp corner of the saint's prominence, vulgarly 
called hisnose, and thus, by a shifting of the scene, to be- 
hold another admirable vista of six or seven miles in ex- 
tent, running nearly north and south, between mountains 
and ranges of pleasing variety and contour, especially the 
east or right hand shore, with the intervention of an island 
and a low green meadow on the left, to soften and harmo- 
nize the picture, aided by the rude log hut of the fisherman 
or woodman, with just sufficiency of arable and grazing 
land at his command to enable him to exhibit an abortive 



Buttermilk Falls — Sugar Loaf. 19 

attempt perhaps to raise his indian corn, peas, and pump- 
kins. 

Beyond the island, and four miles from the race, we 
come to the flour mills at Buttermilk Falls; but as the 
truth of its name and Dutch cognomen depends entirely 
upon a bountiful supply of water, wasting and spreading 
over the smooth surface of a solid rock, and fretting 
itself into a fury and foam in its snowy descent, and as 
this requisite supply cannot always be spared, or allowed 
to stray and straggle away in this manner, from the unde- 
niable requirements of the mill during a drought or dry 
long season of midsummer, merely to gratify the eyes of 
ladies and gentlemen that pass it for a minute or two in ra- 
pid review, it may be proper here to state, that though at 
certain times and seasons of the year it exhibits much beau- 
ty, and is a just object of admiration, yet at others the 
stream is dwindled to a mere rill, and the searcher after 
the picturesque and beautiful is liable to be sadly disap- 
pointed, when nothing can be seen but the stains on the 
naked rock, the traces of its former ephemeral beauty. 

A more durable and enduring monument of nature, in 
the size, height, and form of the sugar loaf mountain, nearly 
opposite to Lydig's mills, or the Buttermilk Falls, is worthy 
of our notice as we get on, — its height is eight hundred and 
sixty feet, a little more than the famous pyramids of Egypt. 
As the traveler changes his position, and views this object 
on various sides and at different angles, the resemblance 
to a sugar loaf cannot always in such cases be detected, bui 
it resembles much some of the bluffs on the Mississippi or 
Missouri. 

The mansion opposite the falls, and in the vicinity of the 
sugar loaf, is the property of Mr. Arden, as is also the hilly 
and wooded tract to a considerable extent around ; and at 
a very few rods in a southern direction, in a spot not visible 
to the traveler in passing on the river, is the memorable 
scene where Benedict Arnold held his secret and treason- 
able midnight interviews with the adjutant-general of the 
British army, to make his developements and unfold his 
plans to deliver up West Point, the American army and 
the nation, into the power of the enemy then our oppo- 
nents ; the best details of these events may be found in 
the recent publication of Spark's American Biography, in 
the sketch of Arnold; it only remains for us to say, that 



20 Fort Putnam— Kosciusko' s Garden. 

the tragical fate and denouement of an individual in the 
story has elicited too much mawkish sensibility towards 
one of the principal actors in this drama of the history of 
America, 

When at about fifty miles from New-York, we catch the 
first glimpse of the ruins of Fori Putnam, in a north-west di- 
rection, five hundred and ninety-eight feet above the river, 
peering over the brow of the hill on the left, and soon afier, 
of the outworks and buildings attached to the United States 
military academy at West Point. The hospital, a sub- 
stantial edifice ot" hewn stone, oi two stories, with a front 
towards the river on the east, a piazza and wings, is the first 
indication of our proximity to this celebrated school, and of 
the principal edifices that soon begin to appear in part on the 
terrace, one hundred and eighty-eight feet above the river. 

On the face of the hill beneath, may be pointed out ihe 
descent towards the garden of Kosciusko, the Polish patriot 
of our own revolution, in whose honor the cadets of this 
academy, in 1828, caused a neat and classical marble monu- 
ment to be erected, as a memorial of the gratitude of a na- 
tion for the sympathy of a foreigner of celebrity towards 
us, that also yielded his life in support of our cause. This 
cenotaph stands out in bold relief before us, guarded by 
an iron railing, on the very verge of the precipitous hill, 
and near and amidst the remains of the revolutionary field- 
works erected by Gen. Putnam and the old continental 
army in 1776-7. The garden referred to, and the clear 
boiling spring near it, enclosed in a marble reservoir, with 
durable and ornamental steps leading down from the plain 
above, with an arrangement of benches on a projection of 
the rock for visiters, may be seen in passing by, but to more 
satisfaetion by those landing: at the point. 

The manner and style of natural adornment that is pre- 
sented by the face of the grounds and rocks attached to this 
national domain, is in good taste in every respect, of art as- 
sisting nature, and in harmony and keeping throughout, and 
cannot fail to impress the traveler, when he observes the for- 
mation of the fantastic rocks, wild moss covered crags, luxu- 
riantly-aarlanded pillars and creeping shrubs, and the cotta- 
ges and hamlets perched on the slopes, terraces, and crags, in 
most admired confusion. The elegant mansion on the cast side 
of the river was erected by Capt. Phillips, and is one of tho 
choicest sites on the Hudson, and commands one of the finest 



West Point— Scenery. 22 

panoramas in the United States, and is now owned and occu- 
pied by Mr. Kembie. 

We have now arrived at the termination of the six mile 
reach before referred to, and must stand prepared to behold 
another magical transformation of the bewitching scenery of 
the river as the boat takes a sharp turn around the low rocky 
projection or reef on the west, and unfolds one of the love- 
liest views in the world to the enraptured gaze of the be- 
holder. The lake-like expansion of the river, with the steep 
front of the lofty mountain that here faces us, called the Croio^s 
Nest^ rising to the height of one thousand four hundred and 
eighteen feet, with a depression on its top for the nest, giving 
a fancied resemblance to the name it bears ; together with the 
general coup d'ceil of the mountains, and the entire panorama 
of lesser hills and rocky eminences or projections, completes 
the magnificent framing of this truly splendid landscape, that 
few can behold for the first time without a feeling of the most 
rapturous enjoyment. 

The boat comes to the landing at West Point and discharges 
and takes in passengers, and allows time enough for the pass- 
ing traveler barely to see the capital hotel on the brow of the 
hill, and perchance to regret his inability to tarry there for a 
short period, and test the capabilities of the location and of 
the landlord, both, to our knowledge, of the first order of ex- 
cellence; the view from the observatory on the top of the hotel 
is peculiarly fine in all its parts, but especially on the north, 
looking down upon the Hudson and towards Newburgh, and 
the remote chain of Shawangunk mountains in the dim blue 
distance towards the north-west — the plain and level parade of 
West Point, and the arrangement of the public edifices for the 
two hundred and fifty cadets, and the private residences of the 
commanding officers and the professors, are beneath the eye. 
After the yearly examination in June, the cadets are en- 
camped on the plain for a certain period, when the drills and 
parades are worth seeing. The academy has been in exis- 
tence since 1802, and is under congressional and executive 
patronage. 

Another of the booms and massive iron chains was also ex- 
tended across the river, from the south side to Constitution 
Island, that projects from the north shore; the battered sur- 
face of the rock there is caused by the artillery or target firing 
for ball practice, and a few casualties that have occurred in the 
corps, are enumerated on the monumental tablet on the brow 



22 Highland Gusfs — Cold Spring. 

of the opposite hill on the west sliore. A portion of the great 
chain as above mentioned is still to be seen with the revolu- 
tionary relics. The head quarters of Gen. George Washington 
while in this neighborhood, were on the site of a building near 
an indentation of the shore, and at the water's edge, a little 
beyond the burying-ground of the academy. 

In receding from, or advancing towards West Point, the 
finest panoramic view is beheld of all the public buildings on 
and around the plain, and also of (he ruins of fort Putnam, 
still lording it over the plain and river below. 

The passage through the Highlands is sometimes perilous 
for sloop navigation, owing to ihe sudden and impetuous gusts 
or flaws of wind that come pouring down between the lofty 
hills and deep gorges and ravines, with hardly a moment's 
warning, even during the calm pleasant days of summer and 
other seasons, upsettmg the unwary mariner, and involving 
the crew and passengers in ia watery grave. Such was the 
fate of the sloop Neptune, of Newburgh, on tlie twenty-third of 
P^ovember, 1824, near Cold Spring," when fifty-five persons 
were on board, twenty-six of whom perished in four minutes, 
and the sloop was enfiulfed in the profound abyss below. 
The drea<l of these rapid and powerful descents of air from 
the upper regions, down to the surface of the river, requires 
the exertion of the utmost vigilance on the part of the navi- 
gators of sloops and river craft, and it was only a few months 
since that a schooner heavily laden with coal was upset near 
West Point, and the vessel and all on board were engulfed in 
a moment. 

*• The village of Cold Spring is prettily situated in a cove or 
recession of the east bank of the Hudson, between Constitu- 
tion Island and Bull Hill, and has a good landing, and a road 
that leads to the interior of Putnam county, and to the road to 
Albany and New- York. The place is owned by the wealthy 
Mr. Kemble and others, and contains the elegant country seat 
of Gen. Morris, editor of the New-Yoik Mirror, also that of Mr. 
Kemble, the proprietor of the West Point foundcry, that is 
here situated on a stream that has a heavy wafer power, flow- 
ing down from the hills in the vicinity, with a water- fall, im- 
mortalized by the feat and narration of Miss Fanny Kemble, 
eee vol. 2d, p. 164. The foundery has two blast, three air, 
and three cupola furnaces, a boring-n)ill for heavy cannon, 
mortars, cylinders, lathes, an iron water wheel, thirty-six feet 
ia diameter, besides a large establishment in Beach and Wash- 



West Point Foundery^Btdl Hill. 23 

ington-streets, in New-York, on the bank of the river, for con- 
structing sugar mill works, steam engines, and machinery, 
fitting the same in steamboats, repairing, &c. ; employing 
several hundred workmen in the various branches, in both 
places. 

The boring of cannon is as follows i the solid mass of iron in 
the shape of 18, 24, 32 and 42 pounders, when cast, are solid, 
Hud weigh, perhaps, several ions, and are then firmly secured 
or arranged on horizontal pivots, and made to revolve rapidly 
like a turning lathe, by the immense water wheel connected 
with them, and the boring augur being applied to the proper 
end, it is surprising to see how easy and simple is the process, 
and how smooth and regular is tiie bore. Large contracts 
for cannon have been taken and made by this concern, wiJh 
the United States government ; and the regular process for the 
trial and proving of the strength of each cannon is as fol- 
lows: the pieces are arranged at intervals, heavily loaded, 
and double shotted, their muzzles pointed to a ridge of earth, 
or the target on the rock at the base of the mountain across 
fhe west side of the Hudson, and then fired in succession. 
The echo among these mountains is truly grand on such an 
occasion, and when a feu de joie, or salvo, is made, by dis- 
charging all the cannon simultaneously, the effect is really 
glorious, and seems like a mighty rushing wind or earthquake, 
shaking the very foundations of the earth. 

The writer of this was once passing by on board a sloop, 
and floating smoothly along with the tide past this spot, 
during a proof trial of the cannon at this foundery, when 
the moment we had barely cleared their range, whiz-z-z 
whistled a heavy cannon ball passing within a iew inches of 
our stern, and of the quiet children and passengers on deck, 
before even we heard the heavy bang of the discharge, or 
turned around and saw the smoke passing off in curling vo- 
lumes; this was only done in sport, to test the accuracy of 
their aim, to see how near they could come to us without kit- 
ting ;\hh might have been sport to them, but not so to those on 
board at the time. If the least flaw or defect is seen in the 
cannon, the piece is rejected, much to the loss of the proprie- 
tors, that have to allow their manufactures to undergo this se- 
vere ordeal, before they will be accepted and paid for by the 
government. 

Bull Hill, on the east shore, is the next in course, and 



34 Break Neck and Butler Hills— Putnam's Rock, 

being 1,486 feet high, and containing, about midway be- 
tween the base and summit, on a portion of the profile 
edge towards the river, a noted mass of rock resembling 
the human foreliead, nose, mouth, and chin, with a tree pro- 
jecting almost like a cigar or pipe, is never passed by the 
old voyagers and knowing ones without being pointed out 
to their wondering and amused friends, and one must be 
quick in observation at the time, and accurate in the di- 
rection of their eyesight, as the glimpse is but for a minute 
or two, and the rapid progress of a steamer soon takes you 
beyond the only point of view, when the illusion vanishes, 
and the famous and veritable nose of St. Anthony, the pre- 
siding Dutch genius of the Hudson and Mohawk, is gone. 

Break Neck Hill, 1,181 feet high, is the last bluff on the 
east or right shore in passing up the river, the highest peak, 
1,580, being a mile or so to the northeast, and seen when a 
iew miles up nearer Newburgh to the best advantage. 

Butter Hill, the last of the highland river range on 
the west, is 1,529 feet high, and as the boats usually keep 
nearer to the base of that mountain, it forms a more im- 
pressive and overwhelming sight to the traveler than any 
other, from its immense and toppling masses of craggy 
rocks, and sweep of precipice, especially towards the south — 
the eagle is often seen seeking his eyrie amid these inacces- 
sible and solitary positions, and watching, from his lofty 
post or alighting place, the tinny tribes beneath the waves. 

The curious rock found so beautifully perched on the 
summit of this mountain, and having the appearance at a 
distance of a tent or marquee, and that was so uselessly and 
with so much trouble displaced by Gen. Putnam in a rude 
vandal and wanton spirit of destruction, merely to see it tum- 
ble headlong down the mountain to the water's edge, where it 
is said it is still to be seen, will never cease to be regretted by 
posterity as an act of wicked frivolity and M^anton de- 
struction totally irreparable, and only to be winked at orover- 
looked as an indiscreet act of a brave man, and his follow- 
ers, or fellow-soldiers, but to be frowned upon and prevented 
at all future times, as should be all attempts to mar or dis- 
fi?:ure the curiosities or wonderful forms and arrangements 
of nature. Recently, the officers and crew of a British 
man of war, on the coast of Great Britain, undertook and 
performed very much such an useless and disgraceful act, 
that, when known, met with such a general burst of indigna- 



Pollopdl Island— Neic Windsor. 25 

?iOii and disgust, that the British government instantly or- 
dered the same crew and officers to replace the stone on the 
same foundation, although it was like thclabors of Sisyphus, 

Having finished the Highlands, we pass a mass of rock 
near the channel called Pollopell Island, having the appear- 
ance of the top of a sunken mountain, and without any sign 
of human residence, or ownership, or occupation even by 
reptiles, though snakes are said to abound, but how they got 
there no one can tell, and few can stop to ascertain the fact. 
Like Snakehill in Newark meadows, it has this scare-crow 
rattle-snake celebrity, as far as we are cognizant, without 
the least cause whatever ; if any one doubts, let him land 
and explore. 

The gorgeous scenes of the Highland passage being fin- 
ished, the observant traveler will have a store of rich re- 
t:olIection and resplendent imagery treasured up in his mind 
and imagination, that will reward him in his future life 
when brought up in review, aided by his reading and reflec- 
tions and other associations connected with the history of 
America. 

Cornwall and Canterbury are two villages and landings 
near the northern base of Butter Hill, and three to four miles 
jrom Newburgh, that are the first settlements that appear on 
the left when we leave the straits of the Highlands, and 
glide into the expansion of the Hudson, between JN^ewburgh 
and Fishkill and New Windsor. 

Moodenen,or Murdenen, or Orange Kill, coming from the 
interior of Orange county, near Goshen, joins the Hudson 
between Canterbury and New AVindsor, and is a consider- 
able mountain and mill stream. 

New Windsor is a considerable landing-place, and has 
its sloops, docks, and regular steamboats plying to Nev^- 
York daily, or two or three times a week, similar to all the 
towns on the river of any note, and here also is a humble- 
looking old Dutch-like mansion near the south wharf, that^ 
was in 1774, for a time, the temporary head-quarters of 
Washington. 

There are neat residences on the northern slope of But- 
ter Hill, also on the hill near the landing of Nev:> Windsor. 
The embowered abode on the opposite low shore, on a round 
beautifully wooded verdant spot, is the country seat ofWm. 
Denning, Esq. called by himPresque Isle. The modest-look- 
ing country seat and extensive grounds of John P. De Winf, 
3 



26 Newburgh—Peak of Fishkill Mountain. 

Esq. is the next seen on the east side above Fishkill landing, 
presenting an extensive and handsomely wooded front, to- 
wards the river, with a complete view of the entrance of 
the Highlands and the opposite city. 



IVewbtirgli, 



from its peculiar situation on a hill presenting a very steep 
acclivity, is completely arrayed to the view of the passing 
traveler, and makes quite a display of business, and has its 
whale ships abroad, and its own steamboats and sloops in 
abundance, besides being one of the principal landing and 
stoppins-places for all the steamboats that go to and fro be- 
tween New- York and Albany, and a great ouilet to the cen- 
tral and western parts of the State of New- York, and having 
roads and stages to all the inland towns and along the river; 
and is noted also for its ale. The communication with Dut- 
chess county is kept up by a ferry across to Fishkill landing, 
with its long pier reaching out to the channel. The Maitea- 
wan cotton factory (Schenck's) is at the base of the Fishkill 
chain of hills near the mouth of the creek, and has a valua- 
ble water-power, mill, &c. and is a well managed concern. 
There are two highland schools, one at Cold Spring, on the 
hill near the foundery before mentioned, and the other here. 

The geology of the Highlands is primitive, but from hence 
to Troy and Waterford it is transition, and we are now 
entering upon and passing along its borders, as denoted by 
the limestone and kilns along shore for several miles. The 
interior of Orange and Dutchess counties is fertile, and 
they are the dairies for the city, especially Goshen in 
Orange county. 

From the highest peak of the Fishkill raHge, in plain 
sight, parties of pleasure that assemble from the vales of 
the neighboring counties, to scale the arduous ascent, on 
foot or in carriages, have a transcendently line bird's-eye 
view down upon the Hudson from Newburgh up the river 
to a great distance, altogether superior in this respect to anv 
other place, not forgetting even the Catskill Pine Orchard, 
that can be faintly discerned in the remotest distance, and 
also the nearer sweep of the Shawangunk range, form- 



Low Point — Hamburgh — Barne^at. 27 

ing the limit to the west, with all the intermediate country 
back of Newbargh also expanded to the eye, and on the right 
hand is seen in the far distance the prominent ranges and 
peaks in Massachusetts and Vermont, to the utmost verge 
of human vision. To visit this peak, land at Newburgh, 
cross the river to Fishkill landing, and foot it up the hill in 
two hours with ease; the road is followed and traced up 
without the least difficulty, and the writer accomplished this 
in the time mentioned, and was not mole?ted by or saw the 
least appearance of snakes or reptiles, although he trudged 
about considerably along the range towards the southwest, 
to change his points of view. Any one having the time to 
devote to the ascension of this mountain, will have seen 
this part of the Hudson River valley, &c. in unequalled 
perfection. 

Proceeding on from Newburgh in a north-east course for 
six miles, in a handsome reach of the river, we pass Low 
Point, a small landing on the east with a few buildings, and 
in a few minutes' time reach a bold headland or rock on the 
west shore, Dans cemmer or Dans kamer point, and face- 
tiously referred toby Knickerbocker, as "where Gov. Stuy- 
vesant in his voyage up and landing on this rock, was fright- 
ened out of his wits by a gang of merry roistering devils, 
freaking and curveting on a huge rock projected into the 
river, and which is called the Duyvill Dans Kam.er to 
this day." 

From the last mentioned point the river assumes, for ten 
or fifteen miles, a due north and south course, in a reach of 
exquisite beauty towards Poughkeepsie, that is clearly dis- 
covered in the distant perspective. 

Hamburgh, on the east shore, is at the mouth of Wappin- 
ger Creek, a good mill stream, rising about thirty or lorty 
miles to the north-east, and pervading the county of Dutchess, 
and having much fine rich interval land on its margin. A 
mile and a half north is passed a neat but unobtrusive house 
on the east, the former residence of George Clinton, gov- 
ernor of this State, and recently of Gen. James Tallmadge; 
and on the west shore nearly opposite, we see a new and 
elegant house of Mr. Armstrong, and the village or landing 
of Hampton, and one and a half miles further is Jews^ Creek, 
the paradise of the brickmakers, as is the shore hereabouts 
for the lime-burners. 

Barnegat is the next landing on the east» as is Milton on 



28 PGughkeepsie — Hyde Park. 

the west, and as we approach that of Poughkecpsic on the 
east, the traveler will please to notice the singular con- 
formation of the rocky and distorted slaty shores that rise 
in a threatening and dangerous manner near the landing, in 
a bold rocky bluff, that from its summit commands an ex- 
tensive and beautiful reach up and down the river, and of 
the opposite shores in New Paltz. 

The landing at Poug/ikecpsie is seventy-five miles from 
New- York, and sixty-nine from Albany, and has the aspect 
of a stirring business place ; there are several extensive 
manufactories (a large one for making steam locomotives) 
and warehouses along the river front, and there are several 
ships equipped from hence on whaling voyages, that make 
it upon the whole a good business. The city is principally 
built on the upper part of the hill, one mile east of the Hud- 
son, at the intersection of the old route leading to Albany 
and New- York, and to the States of Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut. The Dutch made their inroads upon the Indians 
in this vicinity in 1735 ; and in 1788 the New- York conven- 
tion here assembled that adopted the constitution of the 
United States, and it has also at other periods, for a short 
time, been the seat of the State Legislature. The number of 
inhabitants at the present time is six thousand five hundred. 
Fall Creek runs through the north part of the city, and forms 
in its course down the ravine, cataracts and mill seats. The 
city has its own steam and tow-boats, to take the produce of 
this fertile county to the metropolis with speed and regular- 
ity, and this mode is fast supplanting the old tedious system 
of sloop navigation on this river. 

There are several neat, tidy-looking villas or country 
seats adorning the river's bank in the vicinity of the land- 
ing, and at intervals along for several miles, as we ap- 
proach or recede from the landing; and at the end of the 
before-mentioned long reach or meridional north and south 
line, we find ourselves drawing near a slight inflection, or 
divergence in the course of the river, called Crum Elbow, 
when, as we pass out of the long reach that the interlocking 
of the opposite shores excludes from our view, we see, far 
ahead, (if we occupy at this moment a favorable position 
on the upper deck,) the first dim outline in the blue dis- 
tance, of the Catskill mountains, towering aloft like a thun- 
der cloud. 

We are now passing the rough castellated front of Hyde 



Crum Elbow Creek— Scenery. 29 

Park, a place so called, that for three or four miles along 
the road, oq the table land north and south, contains the 
elegant country seats of Mr. Girahd, Mr. Holbrook, Judge 
Johnson, Dr. Allen, and that of the late Doctors Baid and 
Hosack, Juds:e Pendleton, H "Wilkes, and others. The 
avenue leading past this strikingly beautiful series of farms, 
and the residences of the affluent and tasteful owners, is 
not in sight of the steamboat passengers only in part; but 
a more superb line of road, for the same distance, does 
not exist in this State, considering the auxiliaries that 
come into view before the traveler; the fine avenue and 
its ornamental forest trees of the maple, locust, &c. and the 
unrivalled back ground of the landscape, the elevated and 
cultivated and woody slopes of the west borders of the Hud- 
son, that from their "proximity and the easy angle of incli- 
nation, have a most graceful appearance in contrast with 
the more distant towering bac^ ground of the blue range 
of the Catskills, in the north-west. 

Eighty miles Irom New York, at the mouth of Crum El- 
bow Creek, on the eaot shore, is the landing-place of Hyde 
Park, and a few rods north, we see the splendidly-arranged 
house and grounds of the late Dr. David Hosack, of New.- 
York, and purchased by him of VVm. Bard, Esq. the son of 
the late Dr Samuel Bard, one of the founders of the New- 
York Hospital—the exient of the land purchased by Dr. H. 
amounted in all to about eight hundred acres, and the ori- 
ginal cost to him, including his subsequent improvements, 
was S100,000. He had the grounds laid out in the most 
tasteful, attractive style, with gravel walks following the 
windings and undulations along the verge of the natural 
terrace, overlooking the Hudson river directly beneath, 
and the deep, abrupt, grassy and wooded lawn for a mile or 
two, and ending in a small circular temple on the rocky mar- 
gin of the Hudson. The waters of the Crum Elbow Creek 
run through the grounds, and are so disposed as to add to 
the beauty and value of the property. Since the death of 
the late proprietor Dr, H. the very extensive collection of 
hot-house plants has been disposed of at auction. 

The next in rotation of the pleasant mansions on the east 
shore, is that of Judge Pendleton, and in two miles that of 
H. Wilkes. Nearly opposite a rocky island, two miles 
beyond, on the east shore, at eighty-five miles from New- 
York, in the township of Staatsburg, is the residence of Mor- 
3* 



30 Mouth of iJte Waalkill — Delaware Sf Hudson Canal. 

gan Lewis, Esq. the governor of the State in 1S03 ; and near 
by is that of James Duane Livingston, and for the next two 
or three miles in passing along by the Esopus Meadows or 
flats, we see, on the east, the mansion of J. Thomson. 

On the west shore, just before arriving at a bleak rock)'- 
point, Columbus, ninety miles from New-York, the place 
of landing for Esopus, four miles distant, we pass the ter- 
mination or beginning of the Shawangunk range, here 
caMed Mombackus, or Indian face, that extends in a south- 
west direction for seventy miles, to the Delaware River. 

The Waalkill River, that here comes into the Hudson from 
the south-west, is about eighty miles long, and rises in the 
large morass or overflown tract in Orange County, known 
as the drowned lands, ten miles long and three wide, and 
follows at the eastern base of the Shawangunk range for 
many miles, and receives as branches, the Shawangunk 
kill and the Rondout kill, and up the valley of the latter pro- 
ceeds the Delaware and Hudson Canal from its termination 
at Eddyville, about four miles to the south-west. Bolton 
landing is about one mile from Columbus, and is in plain 
view from the Hudson, in passing the point. 

The Lackawana coal is brought to Eddyville from the 
mines in Pennsylvania by rail-road sixteen miles and canal 
one hundred and eight miles. It is a singular fact that the 
summit level of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, at a morass 
where the Barkers kill (running southwest to the Nevisink 
and Delav/are) interlocks with the Sandberg kill, (that runs 
north-east to the Rondout kill and the Hudson,^ is more than 
four hundred feet above the Hudson, and only eighty feet 
above the Delaware ; thus a dam across the Delaware at 
Carpenter's Point or Port Lewis, fifty-nine miles from the 
Hudson, at the west border of Orange County, might be 
made to divert the entire waters of the Delaware, in a north- 
east course towards the valley of the Hudson River, along 
the western base of the Shawangunk mountains, and this, 
from geological appearances, was formerly the case. There 
are no passage-boats, but coal-boats plying on this canal as 
it is entirely out of the usual route for pleasure travelers, 
otherwise the scenery on the canal has some recommenda- 
tions. Though it may be possible to get on in that way, 
and rousih it to the head of the canal at Honesdale, and then 
take stage for VVilkesbarre, or Montrose, or Binghamton, 
and then branch off either to Utica, and the Mohawk, and 



Kingston — Country Seats, Si 

the St. Lawrence ; or on the west, on the banks of the Su.s- 
^juehanna to Owego and up to Ithaca and down the Cayuga 
or Seneca Lake, or from Owego farther west by the valley 
of the Susquehannah to Tioga Point, thence north-west to 
Newtown, Painted Post, Bath, Batavia and Niagara Falls — 
it must be confessed, a wilder route could not be selected, 
yet at Honesdale and Carbondale, and in passing the main 
ridges, there would be much to gratify the eye of the poet, 
the philosopher, and the landscape painter. 

The Delaware and Hudson Canal is thirty-two to thirty-six 
feet wide, and four deep, — ascent five hundred and ihirty-five, 
and descent eighty feet, — sixty-two locks, and six hundred 
and fifteen feet lockage ; — cost of canal, sixteen thousand dol- 
lars per mile, — the elevation on the Moosic mountain is over- 
come by five inclined planes, each from two thousand to three 
thousand feet in length, — single track and cost six thousand 
five hundred dollars per mile. 

There are always stages on the dock at Columbus to con- 
vey passengers to Kingston, three miles inland to the north- 
west, on a handsome plain. This was settled by the Dutch 
as early as 1616; it is the county town of Ulster, and was de- 
stroyed by fire in 1777, by the British troops under Vaughan. 
The court house is a stone building, and cost forty thousand 
dollars. The other public and many private buildings are 
also of stone, and the inhabitants wealthy and industrious. 
The village has the advantage of large lots and gardens, and 
must be an agreeable residence. The flats along the Esopus 
creek, in front of the village, are rich and handsome. There 
are about two thousand inhabitants. 

Opposite to Columbus or Kingston, is the landing of Rhine- 
beck, (derived from river Rhine in Germany, and Beckman, 
the name of an original proprietor.) The village, containing 
seventy houses, is three miles in the interior, on the Rhine- 
beck flats, a pleasant tract, and easy soil for cultivation. For 
several miles above Rhinebeck the soil and aspect is rather 
uninviting, but on the west shore we are constantly regaled 
with the scenery of the Catskillsas we rapidly advance, until 
we re?ch the lower landing of Red Hook, ninety-eight miles 
from New- York, with the handsome residence of Capt. Lowndes 
Brown near the river, and of Gen. Armstrong further in the 
rear, on the hill ; and in a short distance north of the dock is 
that of John R. Livingston, Esq. and opposite the Magdalen 
Island of Dr. Martin, are also successively those of the late 



32 Redhook—Ury—H. Barclay, Saugeriies. 

Maj. Gen. Montgomery, John C. Stevens, R. S. Livingston, 
and J. C- Mongomery, Esqrs. and of Philip Livingston, Esq- 
on the point of Saw Kill Creek. 

The wliire speck seen for several miles on the Catskill, is 
the famous mountain house, two thousand five hundred feet in 
elevation above llie Hud?on. 

G!asf:::oiv village, in Ulster Counly, on the west, is ninety 
nine miles from New-York, abreast of the upper of the Mag- 
dalen Islands. 

One hundred miles from New-York, and forty-four from Al- 
bany, we arrive at the liedhook upper landing on the east, and 
the delg-htful residences of Robert Tillotson, F.sq. John Swift 
Livingston, Esq. and Mr. Elineodorff, together with a num- 
ber of other h<.u«es,anda iiotol ; but the principal settlement is 
five nu!e-5 to the east, on the main post-road (rom north to 
south. Observe that in this near vicmity is Rfdliook post-office, 
Rodhook landing post-office, anil Upper Kedhook post-office, 
as this is apt to create confusion in uiailinjj letters. 

Esopus Creek, as it is termed on the maps, bur richly deserv- 
ing th(! name of river, comes into the Hudson on the west 
shore, neatly opposite the lauding last mentioned It rises 
in the north-west part of Ulster county, has a south-east and 
then a north-eist course past Kingslon, and then nearly north 
to Saugkrtiks villasie, its entire length being sixty mdes, with 
much rich l.md on i's niar}i;iti, and has a heavy water power 
concentrated within four miles of its moudi, principally be- 
longing to Henn/ Barclay, F.sq. of Ury, the touutiy seat so 
named, opposite upper Redhook. 

Few minui fact u ling villages in the Northern States are 
equal to S/ius;er(ies, or have a more solid basis of prosperity, 
a never-failing- water power, derived from the southern slof)e 
of tiie lofty Catskills, unile.l with ample capital, judiciously 
direcied in the manufacture of paper, cottons, woollens, bar- 
iron, white lead, and many others. The principal fall at this 
village is fiOy feet in height, formed by ihe union of art and 
nature, so directed as to back the water for three mile.'^, thus 
creating a lovely lake to within a mile or so of the great falls 
of Esopus, and a combination of attractive scenery, highly 
pleasinij to the traveler of taste, and to the citizens from tho 
south desiring a residence for the summer months. There are 
steam boats and tow-boats belonging to this place, and every 
facility for reaching this desirable vill.ige, and enjoying the 
rides among the stupendous ghauts, or deep goryes of the 



Livingston Manor — Bristol. 33 

Catskills, that within ten to fifteen miles attain their o;reatest 
elevation and beauty, and are beheld %vith the most impressive 
eflect. The population of Saugerties is four thousand. 

The Manor of LirAngslon^ in 1684-5-6, was granted 
by the king of England to Robert Livingston, a member of 
his privy council, and embraced a front of ten miles and a 
half on the Hudson, twenty and a half miles back inland, and 
fourteen on the eastern border, making two hundred and 
eighty-eight square miles: with baronial privileges, a tract 
equal to a small German principality. It is at present owned 
by several heirs of the original proprietors, (with the excep- 
tion of Gerniantown, a tract of six thousand acres, conveyed 
in 1710, by an arrangement with Queen Anne, to a number of 
Palatines who had served in her armies in Germany,) and now 
forms the townships of Clermont, Livingston, Taghkanick, 
Ancram, and Germantov.n. 

The old Livingston manor-house is situated on the east- 
bank of the Hudson, near Rolef Jansen's, or Ancram Creek, 
ten miles above Redhook upper landing ; but the splen- 
did residences of Robert L. Livingston and Edward P. Li- 
vingston, Esqrs. the sons of the late chancellor Livingston, 
(rnu)ister to France, who made the negociation for the pur- 
chase of Louisiana with Napoleon, for fifteen millions of dol- 
lars,) are situated nearly opposite to Saugerties, and their diver- 
sified grounds and lawns, that command the finest scenery 
on the Hudson, extend for miles on the borders of the river, 
and are in every respect princely abodes. This family are, 
and have always been on the popular side in political mat- 
ters, and in unison with the old republican party, and of high 
estimation in the national and state governments. 

Bristol, on the west shore, is a small village and landing for 
sloops, two miles above Saugerties ; and opposite, in the mid- 
dle of the river, begins a series of flats, or low mud islands, 
that extend up for two or three miles, past Trumpores land- 
ing, the next above Bristol. Oak Hill, the residence of Har- 
man Livingston, Esq. next is seen on the east shore, conspicu- 
ously on the hill south of the landing, and the convenient 
dock and warehouse for storing country produce; and on the 
opposite shore, as we draw near the landing, we pass a creek 
with a very serpentine channel winding through the marsh 
and soon after arrive at 



34 Calskill—Pme Orchard—Clove Road. 



Catsl£ill, 



on the west shore, one hundred and eleven miles from New- 
York. This has long been an important landing-place for 
visiters to the great liotel o-:> the tabic rock of the Catskills, 
known as the Pine Orchard, and frequented by thousands of 
travelers. Carriages are always in wailing on the dock to 
accommodate tho^e that wish to ascend. Travelers cnn pro- 
ceed by the rail road to Canajoharie, a town on the Erie Canal 
and banks of the Mohawk Kivcr, about seventy miles in a 
north-west dire'jtion up the valley of the Catskill river, through 
CJreen and Schoiiarie counties, and over and along the north- 
eastern slopes of the mounlairis, saving, perhaps, a little time 
and distance, but losing the view of Hudson, Albany, and 
Troy, and of the delightiul rail-road route along the Mohawk, 
from Schenectady to the intersection of Canajoharie. 

Stages tor the west leave Catskill daily for Bmghanilon, 
Owego, and Ithaca, and thence down the Cayuga Lake for 
forty miles, and by stage, canal, or rail road, to Geneva, Ca- 
iiandait;ua, Rochester, Lockport, Lewislown, or Buffalo. 

Besides the view from the table rock before alluded to, 
there are other inducements for travelers disposed for a tin)e 
to seek out gratification and amusement, to visit the falls and 
other spots that the magic touches of Cole the artist have 
brought to the public admiration ; and as coaches run regu- 
larly to and from the mountain, and are so adjusted as to 
m^et the steam-boats at various hours, and also to enable the 
public to visit the different falls, there is every facility afforded 
ihe traveler; the price is one dollar to ascend to the moun- 
tain house — the time required, about four hours, distance 
twelve miles — but half the time suffices to return. The roatl 
for nine miles from the landing is uneven, and for the last 
three, a steep ascent in a zigzag course, doubling on the 
track, that soon places the traveler in a peculiar position, ra- 
ther trying to the nerves of the timid. 

The Clove road that ascends the Catskills, a mile or two 
south of the road to the Pine Orchard, should by all means be 
seen asoneof tlie wonders of the vicinity. It enters upon the 
ascent where the Kauterskill emerges into the light of <lay, 
from the deep and overshadowed ravine, where the raging 



Scenery up the Catskills. 35 

and force of the (umulluoiis waters have thrown large masses 
of rock into every imaginable and confused form, pile on pile, 
among which, the tumbling- waters are sometimes seen burst- 
ing forth from narrow channels, or crevices, or swelling and 
boiling up from some syphon or upper source, or forming cas- 
cades of an endless variety of forms, and giving forth sounds 
of its raging and uncontrolled power, that, as the traveler 
follows up tile arduous, and endless, and truly fatiguing as- 
cent, becomes less and less audible, as the road takes the other 
side of the gorge, by crossing a rude bridge. 

Several tremendous precipices of sandstone rock, of seve- 
ral hundred feet in perpendicular height, strike one with awe 
and delight, — and when nearly at the end of the ascent, the 
traveler will pause and look back to the east, through the nar- 
row vista of the towering rocky masses of the mountain on 
either hand, at a plunging and rapid sweep of the eye, at the 
distant fields and farms far down in ihe vale below, and be- 
yond the Hudson, on the east shore, well in the interior, to- 
wards the Massachusetts and Connecticut lines, the diver- 
sified colors of the cleared and cultivated lands, green lots 
and tiie yellow harvest ripening for the sickle and the scythe, 
with all the hues of the fading distance, and at the deep and 
full green of the American forest predominating over the 
landscape, the whole presented at such a visual angle and as 
distinctly exhibited in its details, as a vast map, or page in 
the sublime volume of nature. 

The entire view, from the twilight dimness of objects in 
the gorge, and the concentration of the eager gaze of the 
beholder, and Hie l)riiliant lighting up of the remoter squares 
and divisions of the farms, dwindled into diminutive size 
at the end of this grand gallery of nature, seems of it- 
self to be a perfect picture, set with a most gigantic and 
appropriate irame, and underneath the blue canopy of the 
o'er-arching expanse of heaven, is in admirable keeping 
and'harmony. When resuming the advance, and attaining to 
the summit of tiie gap^ in a short distance there is a clear 
ing and a log-house or two, and you can begin your view 
westward ; the extreme summit of the round top still appears 
to be at a toilsome distance. The residents near this spot are 
accustomed to conduct up those seeking their aid to attain 
the crowning summit of the Catskills, three thousand eight 
hundred and fifty six feet high. While here, get the guides to 
conduct you to the ravine near by, where the western branch 



36 Scenery of the CatsJnlls. 

of the Kauterskill presents a most beautiful cascade into i\\i; 
deep and narrow ainphitheatrical walls of a secluded recep- 
tacle, hollowed out and excavated into pools or reservoirs, 
most admirable for a pure clear bath, where nought but a 
small openin£[ like a sky-light admits a sufficiency of expo- 
sure to exhibit the exquisite drapery that clothes the steep 
sides and the encircling' rim or verge of this sanctuary 
of nature, that must be sought and won with considerable 
toil and muscular exertion, and that so richly repays the 
explorer. This is one among- a number of the hitherto se- 
cret and hidden beauties of nature, that man has seldom 
beheld in this portion of the mountain ; others exist farther 
to the interior. 

A week or a month of the lonrj days in June, July, or 
August, will not exhaust the resources of pleasure, but a bare 
day or two is but seldom awarded, and that is given merely 
to the Pine Orchard and the Kauterskill, that we shall now 
describe, premising that the writer once visited them from 
below, by taking a lateral road, on the north of Clove Road, 
excavated for the red paint or pigment, the oxide of iron, 
and clambering up the steep ravine, from crag to crag, and 
over the dashing brook, and slippery trunks of fallen trees, or 
moss-covered rocks, until the position was at length attained, 
that presents the two leaps ol" the upper Kauterskill falls in 
one upward view. 

The hotel on the table rock was built by the citizens of 
Catskill, and coat twenty-two thousand dollars; it is one hun- 
dred and forty feet in length, four stories high, with a piazza 
extending across the front, and a colonnade. There are about 
six acres of naked rock surface around the hotel, with ample 
room for outbuildings. The hotel is placed at a safe distance 
from the verge of the sheer descent of the precipice, to al- 
low coaches to draw or drive up in front, to deliver and re- 
ceive passengers, and for visiters to promenade about, and 
peer over the dizzy, toppling crags, into the deep valley un- 
der the eye of the spectator, here at an altitude of two thou- 
sand five hundred feet above the Hudson, and fifteen hundred 
above the open meadow at the immediate base of the precipi- 
tous descent. The Hudson river appears distinctly at inter- 
vals, for forty or fifty miles, dotted over with numerous isl- 
ands, and the whhe sails of the river craft, and the steamers, 
with their long trains and curling volumes of smoke, that may 
be easily distinguished by the naked eye, urging their powei'- 



Scenery of the Catskills. 37 

fill coarse over the placid surface of the river, that in the 
morning sun gleams brilliantly and dazzles the eye with its 
effulgence. The cities of Catskill, Hudson, and Poughkeepsic 
also are plainly seen, and minor towns, with their distant vil- 
lage spires. The beholder is impressed at once with the pre- 
dominance of the native forest trees, and the deep verdure of 
their foliage, that yet rules over the largest extent of the sur- 
face of old mother earth, in the entire length and breadth of 
the land, with a scattering of farms, and cleared lands, and 
evidences of the industry of man. The eastern bank of the 
Hudson, and the entire sweep of the landscape, far retreating 
into the interior, towards Vermont, Massachusetts, and Con- 
necticut, embracing one hundred miles iVom north to south, 
and fifty miles from east to west, is completely unfolded to 
the view, developing a large portion of the Hudson river val- 
ley, and presented at the least angle of inclination or slope, 
towards us, environed with a splendid outline or frame of moun- 
tains, with the Taughkannock peak, indicating the north-west 
corner of Connecticut, near the New- York and Massachusetts 
line, in the south-east, — the well recognized, elevated sierra 
of Saddle Mountain, near VVilliamstown, in Massachusetts, to 
1 he north-east, and some prominent peaks of the Green Moun- 
tains in Vermont, on the extreme north or left; and on the 
right or south, we distinguish the blue outline of the Fishkill 
range, and of the highlands beyond Newburgh. The coup 
d'oeil is grand, — the o'ertopping ridges behind the hotel, on. 
the south-west, west, and north-west, bound the view to a lim- 
ited extent, but are themselves objects of great magnificence, 
and are yet seen in all their pristine, or native wildness, rude- 
ness, &ic. The small peak that rises on the south, near by, 
is about one hundred and fifty feet higher than the hotel, and 
is a geological study of itself, composed of pudding-stone, 
sand-stone, &c. and gives an extension to the view towards 
Albany, and a bird's-eye view of the table rock and hotel. 

The remains of the Windham turnpike, made some twenty 
or thirty years since, across this mountain, may be followed 
towards the west, passing the two lakes that are two thousand 
feet above tide water, one mile long, and form the cascade of 
the Kauterski'l Falls, that will now be described : — the lakes 
are repulsive in their aspect, the one on the north, with broad 
lobed-leaved aquatic plants floating on the surface, and bor- 
dered by tangled shrubbery, — but the other has a cleaner 
margin, and the waters of both are connected by a brook 
4 



3S Bcenery of the CalskiUs, 

passing under the bridge. Thie supply of water is sinail, and 
preserved with care, and let off for hire, to increase the mass 
of the fall when a parly of strangers arrives. Following a 
winding, stumpy, rugged, and at times muddy road, for about 
a mile through the woods to the south-west, we arrive at an 
opening of six hundred feet in circumference, that yawns be- 
fore us to a profound depth, and arrests our progress by its 
deep semi-circular or amphitheatrical aperture or form, open 
only towards the south or south-west, and exposing the deep 
ravine, richly clothed round with trees, and varied with fo- 
liage of different colors, retreating steeply down a quarter of 
a mile or more towards the clove road, and from the foot of 
the ravine west of the clove, rises in one majestic curtain or 
slope, extending a mile or two heavenward, the full body of 
the vast round top, that fills an angle of thirty or forty degrees 
above the level of the eye of the beholder, filling him with 
admiration at the noble grandeur of the effect. The run, or 
outlet that discharges the water of the two small lakes, rushes 
across the mass of sand-stone composing the precipice, and 
leaps into the gulf", and, exhausting ilself in foam and spray, 
falls upon the debris one hundred and seventy-five feet, t3 
again collected on the floor of the rock, and within a short 
distance takes another plunge of seventy-five feet, and fol- 
lows the dark, and over-arched, and deeply-shaded depth and 
windings of the ravine to the valley below. 

After studying this grouping oi the mountains and ravine 
from above, the traveler should by all means follow the cir- 
cuitous path that will conduct him down about ninety feet, 
and then take a horizontal direction, passing under the rock 
into a semi-cave behind the waterfall, with the vast rock 
above that supports the falling sheet of water, and impends 
over as the stooping and groping explorer walks on the 
crumbled debris of the red rock, v.'hile the water ig falling 
twenty or thirty feet clear of the standing-place, and forms a 
curtain of snowy spray in front of this deep recess, that serves 
partly to veil the deep blue sky, and adds much to the 
charms of this fearful and wonderfid place ; even the rain- 
bow at certain times appears from above, floating on the bo- 
som of the mists of the falling spray for a moment, vanishing 
and circling away. Those that omit to view this fall from be- 
low lose much that will cause regret. 

The invigorating pure air that is inhaled at the mountain 
house, and the exhilarating effect of the various excursions 



Scenery of the Catskilh— Hudson. 39 

and promenades that are usually taken while there, have 
braced up and restored to health many an invalid that no 
other means could have recruited. 

Not the least of the gratifications derived by an observant 
person, or a lover of nature, from a visit to this mountain eyrie, 
the most remarkable and elevated in the United States, are the 
changes in the atmosphere, produced by clouds, fogs, thunder- 
storms, and the charming and sublime shadows and lights 
passing rapidly over the plain ; also the appearances pro- 
duced by the early morning sun, or evenino; twilight, or the 
softer radiance of full moon, or by the clearing ofTand rising 
of the morning mist from the plains below; or what is still 
belter, to be so fortunate as to witness the gathering of a 
heavy thunder-storm, and to see the lowering volumes of dark 
vapors come sweeping over the western crest of the moun- 
tain, bringing in its train the forked lightning, the loud thun- 
der, and the pelting hail, shaking the firm foundations and re- 
verberating among the echoes of the everlasting hills ; and 
then to see, as the writer has done, the surcharged clouds 
subsiding and sinking into the valley, and then again to see 
the bright flash, and hear the roar of the storm that is raging 
beneath your feet, while over your zenith all is clear and 
calm as a summer's morning, and you see beyond the range 
of the storm, at ten, twenty, or forty miles distance, the clear 
powerful rays of the sun pouring with unmitigated intensity 
upon a tract parched with drought; and then to finish and 
grace the scene, as the atmosphere is clearing away, pillars 
of rainbow-hues are seen in the east on the face of the re- 
treating cloud, and all is hushed, and the refreshed face of 
nature once more assumes its wonted appearance. A traveler 
in Europe present at the time, acknowledged that a scene 
equal to that in sublimity had only once gratified him,— Mont 
Blanc at sun-set. 

From Catskill we find our boat shaping its course to the 
north-east, past a large marshy island, and approaching a bend 
of the river near tlie foot of Mount Merino on the east shore. 
After rounding the hill, the city of Hudson appears before us, 
at one hundred and sixteen miles from New-York, and twenty- 
eight from Albany, with its lofty ware-houses at the landing, 
and ships, steam-boats, and sloops, giving evidence of capital 
and enterprize that here exist, and that has sent out many 
ships on distant whaling voyages to the south seas. The city 
fs principally on the summit of the hill, sixty feet above the 



40 Hudson— Athens— Kijiderhook Point, Ss'C. 

landing, and is seen lo better advantage when the steam-boa4 
is two or three miles out in the river. There are seven thou- 
sand inhabitants in Hudson, and it is the capital of Columbia 
County, and a port of entry and the head of ship navigation 
for large vessels. A branch rail-road extends across this State 
nnd Massachusetts lo Boston, and travelers intending to visit 
ihe Shaktr Village at New Lebanon, thirty miles lo the north- 
east, will land here, and proceed in the rail-road cars, at 
seven o'clock in the inorning, or in private conveyances by 
applying at the inns. 

There is considerable water-power in the neighborhood, and 
much of manufacturing industry near Hudson. Its settlement 
commenced in 1784, by Thomas and Seth Jenkins, of Provi- 
dence, and twenty-eight others, and it had a most rapid growth 
for a time, too rapid, in fact, to last, for in two years it had 
fifteen hundred inhabitants, and one hundred and fifty dwell- 
ing houses. Prospect Hill is at the east of JVarren-strect, that 
has a gentle ascent of one mile, and terminates in a public 
square, academy, water-works, &c. Other streets are laid 
out parallel, and the lots are fifty by one hundred twenty feet. 
It is compact near the river. There are several churches, 
banks, jail, court-house, &c. Lead ores have been found here. 

Athens^ on the west shore opposite to Hudson, is in Greene 
County, and has some genteel private residences, and some 
participation in the river business and sloop navigation, &.c. 
and communicates with its rival by a canal cut through the 
mud flat, to avoid a circuit, and boats pass to and fro. 

Four miles above Hudson on the east, Kindcrhook Creek, 
or Abraham's Creek, alias Ciaverack Creek, comes in, and at 
its mouth there are cotton factories, paper mills, &c. and a pe- 
culiarity in the landscape of most striking appearance ; and 
opposite is a prominent high rocky point, one hundred and 
twenty miles from New-York, called Four Mile Point, and 
paid to be the actual head of ship navigation. The retrospec- 
tive view down the river from this towards Hudson is truly fine, 
with Mounts Merino, Bancroft, and Prospect in the back 
ground, or as adjuncts. The shoals and obstructions from this 
to Albany are increasing every year, in spite of the puny efforts 
of man to counteract, and eventually, measures will have to 
be adopted to extend the Erie Canal thus far. 

Slaats Point is next passed on the east above the Creek, 
nnd Bennett's Point and Island, and in one mile, Little Nutter 
Hook, and Nutter Hook ; and across lo west shore Coccackit 



Staafs Point — Kinderhook—New Baltimore — SfC 41 

landing:, and three islands, (village one mile back,) one hun- 
dred and twenty-three miles from New-York, and an impor- 
tant, bustling little place, with sloops, ship-yards, or rather 
for building steam, canal, and low-boats, and a hauling-up 
place. Three hundred feet above the Hudson, is a boulder of 
Hypersthene, of one hundred tons, like those in the dykes in 
Essex County. 

Stuyvesant or Kinderhook landing, is on the east. {Kinder- 
hook five miles east,) at the mouth of Coxackie Creek, one 
hundred and twenty- five miles from New- York. 

Kinderhook was settled by the Dutch and Swedes, and the 
name originates from Children's comer or point, so called 
from the number of children belonging to a Swedish family 
that anciently lived on a point of land half a mile above 
the upper landing. This is said to have been the birth-place 
of M. Van Buren, the President of the United States. 

Many Islands occur from here to Albany and Waterford, 
causing the channel to be very crooked and variable, but 
adding to the beauty of the trip. 

New Baltimore, one hundred and twenty-nine miles, has a 
dock and store house, and one sloop to New-York once a 
week. The water is eleven feet deep; to this place tide rises 
three to four and a half feet. 

Hannekai's Kill, or Cock Crowing Creek, is on the west 
side, opposite a group of islands. 

Coei/mans, and Coeymans Kill, one hundred and thirty-two 
miles, is in Albany County, and evidently an ancient and ve- 
nerable place, with its store-houses, mills, &c. 

SrJiodack, one hundred and thirty-five miles, village and 
landing in Rensselaer County. 

Castleton,or\e hundred and thirty-six miles; shoalest water 
from New-Baltimore to this, three and a half to seven feet, 
and four and a half to five and a half to Albany ; tide rises 
two to four feet high. 

Vlamans Kill, west side, and Winnes pier and bar. 

Papacane Creek, east side. 

Hoke Bergh, or high hill, Mr. J. B, Staats, five miles from 
Albany. Van Wies Point, west. 

Prospect Hill, east, seat of late E, C. Genet, minister from 
France in 1798. The eastern slopes of the islands facing the 
overslaugh are paved with stone to low water, to prevent ab- 
rasion by the current, and a dam at the north point is to force 
the water in one channel, and increase the velocity, and re- 
4* 



42 Albany. 

vent the bar that detains vessels at low water. Hitherto the 
United Siatcs have devoted large sums to counteract this evil, 
but it recurs and fills up, even if scoured out by a machine. 

Four miles above this is Albany in plain sight, and after 
passing alonji an island that intervenes between the mouth of 
the Normnn''s Kill, and Ctiyler^s Bur, and Van Rensselaer's 
Mills, and Greenbush, on the east shore, we arrive at 



Albany, 

one hundred and forty-four miles from New- York, in N. Lat. 
42° 39', VV. Lou^, 73° 13'. The Legislature of the State here 
assembles in the Capitol or State Mouse, at the head of State- 
street, one hundred and thirty feet above the river. From the 
observatory on the top of this edifice is one of the finest views 
in this State, and acce?>sible to ail stranf;ers. Four Ionic co- 
lumns of marble, thirty-three feet high, ornament the portico. 

The principal objects of attraction the city presents, are 
its ancient and modern buildings, and the public works of the 
State, the Erie and Ckaniplain Canal, and the ^reat Canal 
Basin. The ancient Dutch buildings, of which some are ju- 
diciously permitted to remain in good order, as relics of the 
olden tune, by their owners, must he soujiht for in Pearl-street, 
north of State, and in streets near the river. The residence 
of the late Governor De Witt Clinton, ami the Female School, 
also in Pearl-street, are pointed out to strangers. 

The Albany Jicademii , of red sandstone, also fronts on the 
square north of the Capitol, and cost one hundred tl)ousand 
dollars, and is occupied in part by the Albany Institute or 
Lyceum. 

The Cily Hall, also fronting on the Capitol square on the 
east side, is a showy buildmg of white marl)le, hewed out by 
the Slate-prison convicts of Sing Sing, and is distinguished 
above all other e<lifices in America by its gilded dome, like 
the Invalides at Paris, and has a truly dazzling eflfect, — this 
is the court building, and fitted for County purposes. 

An Exchange is now going up at the foot of State-street, 
and also frontmg on Market. 

There are twenty-two churches for all denominations ; a 
Theatre, but poorly sustained ; a Museum in a semi-elliptical 
building, that is of an elegant and striking appearance, corner 



Albany. it 

cf State and Market-streets, and is wortliy of a visit, and also 
the terrace on ilie top. 

The Law Buildings, corner of South, Market, and Beaver, 
nnd the South Dutch Church in Beaver and Hudson-streets, 
with its noble portico of free-stone and neatly arranged 
g^rounds, also the Churches, the Academies, City Library and 
Reading-room, &-c. are all objects worthy of attention to those 
that have time to study the taste of the people. 

Stanwix Hall, of the eastern granite, with its fine dome, can- 
not but be admired. 

The banking-houses, five in number, are in State-street, 
but are plain, decent edifices. The State-House, for records, 
and for the use of the Treasurer, Secretary of Slate, Surveyor 
General, Register, Adjutant General, Ciiancelor, he is a plain 
fire-proof brick building, solid and substantial. 

The route by Erie Canal occupies one day and a half. Peo- 
ple that value their time, avoid that route, though along the 
Mohawk and Litile Falls it is not excelled by any other. Both 
are given in full, to enable the traveler to make his selection. 

Albany contains about thirty-five thousand inhabitants, was 
founded in 1610, after H. Hudson had sailed up the river to 
the mouth of the Mohawk and returned to Holland, when a 
fort and lodgnient was effected on an island below, in 1G14, 
and found to be too much exposed to floods, ice, &c. and 
abandoned three years after, and Fort Orange erected, on or 
near the F'ort Orange Hotel, in S;)uth Market-street, 

The English captured New-York in 1664, when this place 
then received from its new masters the present name, alter 
the Duke of York and Albany, the proprietor. It had a royal 
charter in 1686 under Dongau, and was anciently surrounded 
by a stockade as a defence against Indians, and it lias always 
been an important and central military position, both in the 
Indian and French wars; and its connection with the Erie 
Canal, and the rail-road leading to the west, have recently 
given it a further impulse that must continue, as all the travel 
from the Eastern States must pass its portals. 

The dep6t of the Mohawk and Hudson Rail-road, from Al- 
bany to Schenectady, is found at 115 State-street, opposite 
Congress Hall, near the top of the hill and public square. 
Seats are there secured for Utica, price three dollars and 
seventy-five cents — through in four hours — ninety-six miles. 

This Rail-road, extending fifteen miles from Albany to 
Schenectady, across a sandy plain covered with pines and 



44 Albany. 

shrubbery, with an inclined plane at each end, cost eight or 
nine hundred thousand dollars, and the Saratoga and Sche- 
nectady Railroad, a continualion of the preceding, and lead- 
ing to Ballston and Saratoga Springs, and twenty-one miles 
long, cost only two hundred and ninety-seven thousand two 
hundred and thirty-seven <lollars, or not half the amount of 
the former, and almost half as long again; began in 1831, 
and finished in 1832, Another route to reach the Springs in 
the shortest possible lime, is to proceed on to Troy, and take 
the rail-road from thence leading over to the islands at the 
mouth of the Mohawk, and over the branch of the delta of 
the Mohawk to Waterford, and thence to Ballston, — twenty- 
five miles, and a pleasant route. 

The Packet-boals do not run as formerly on the canal be- 
tween Albany and Schenectady, as from passing through 
twenty-seven locks in the twenty-eight and a half miles, and 
its consuming twelve hours, it became unpopular, and was 
given up, but the line or freight-boats take passengers if de- 
sired. Those wishing to take passage in the canal-boats that 
leave Schenectady for the west in the morning or afternoon, 
take cars or coaches at Albany on the arrival of the boats 
from New-York, and are at Schenectady in time. 

For Troy, there are stages leaving State, corner of Market- 
street, every half hour, price one shilling, besides small 
steam boats that leave on the arrival of the great ones from 
JSew-York. 

Stages leave daily for Ballston and Saratoga Springs, at six, 
nine, and twelve in the forenoon, and at two, three, and five 
in the afternoon ; and for Whitehall daily, to meet the boat on 
Lake Champlain, that runs to St. John's, and by rail-road to 
La Prairie, and on the St. Lawrence to Montreal. Also, for 
New Haven in a day and a half, via Litchfield daily, one 
o'clock afternoon. 

For Hartford in a day, via Sheffield and Norfolk daily, one 
in morning. 

For Lebanon Springs, via Nassau, at nine in forenoon, 
twenty-five miles. 

For Montreal in three days, at two o'clock morning. 

For Boston in two days or less, via Lebanon, Pittsfield, 
Northampton, and Worcester. 

Stage Offices corner of State and Market, under the Mu- 
eum, and on the corner of Hamilton and Market-streets. 



Albany— Jesse Buel. 45 



Grand Koute to the l¥est, 

by rail-road from Albany to Schenectady (the Springs,) Ulica, 
Syracuse, Auburn, Rochester, Lewistown, Batavia, Buffalo ^ 
and Niagara Falls. 

The line of the Moliawk and Hudson Rail-road at its com- 
mencement, is in plain view, seen from the steamboat, on the 
west bank of the Hudson, near the southern confines of the 
city, where is the main depot for the freight-cars, that are 
taken up the inclined plane by a stationary engine to the sum- 
mit. Passengers for the Utica, and Ballston, and Saratoga rail- 
roads, will purchase their tickets at the depot office, 115 
State-street, and will be despatched punctually at eight o'clock. 
Price through to Utica, three dollars and seventy- five cents, 
or to Schenectady, seventy-five cents, or to the Springs, one 
dollar and fifty cents. 

Horse-power is used to drag each car, the moment passen- 
gers arrive sufficient to fill one, out to the head of State-street, 
where the locomotive engine is in waiting, and when the en- 
tire train is ready, the road is soon passed in a direct line for 
twelve miles through a sterile, sandy tract, to Schenectady, 
nearly on a level. The iron plates rest on wooden rails bedded 
on stone. This has no connection, by charter, with the Utica 
road. Some deep sand excavations and embankments are pass- 
ed, and also the farm and nursery of Jesse Buel, and Wilson and 
Buel, three miles from Albany. The farm covers about eighty 
acres, and the nursery twelve or fifteen. Mr. Buel is exten- 
sively known as the editor of the Cultivator, a monthly quarto 
paper at fifty cents a year, and for his entire devotion to the 
interests of agriculture and horticulture. The successful re- 
sults of his labors in these respects are here beneficially ex- 
emplified. His catalogues and publications are to be seen in 
the Albany book-stores. Mr. Buel has been the whig candi- 
<late for Governor of the. State, but did not succeed. 

Arriving at the inclined plane overlooking Schenectady and 
the valley of the Mohawk, with the grand Erie Canal at the 
foot of the hill, the traveler is three hundred and thirty-five 
feet above tide-water at Albany, (there are twenty-seven canal 
locks between Albany and Schenectady, rise two hundred and 
twenty-seven feet,) one hundred and eight feet descent of the 
plane in half a mile. The firstglance from this elevation is very 
pleasing ; but a few moments are allowed the passengers, who 



46 Schenectady. 

are let down in the customary manner, and pass by tlie capa- 
cious depots and car-repositories on the plain, here in close 
proximity to the Erie Canal, Mohawk River, &c. &c. Passing 
through the city of Schenectady, this route unites with the 
rail-road that extends to Ballslon, fifteen miles from Albany, 
and Saratoga Springs, six and a half miles. (For the route 
to the Springs via TVoy, see p. 44.) 



Sclienectady, 

fifteen miles from Albany, contains about five thousand five 
hundred inhabitants, exclusive of the two hundred students 
attached to Union College, and is well placed near the Mohawk 
River, It was surprised and burnt by the French Canadians 
and Indians, the eighth of Februarj, 1G90, and the inhabitants 
perished in cold blood, or were made captives; few escaped 
in the snow to Albany. In 1748 another massacre took place 
of seventy inhabitants, and in 1S19 one hundred and seventy 
houses were burnt. There is a good hotel on the main-street. 
The dreary old sandy road, horridly paved with large stones, 
that formerly was dreaded, and required four or five hours of 
Btage-driving for the fifteen miles to Albany, is now a matter 
of history with the old traveler, in contrast with existing faci- 
lities, and the same may be said with many other routes. 
There are two banks, six churches, a City Hal!, &c. and it is 
an old settlement. Many mills, and sites for hydraulic works, 
are near the town. 

The Mohawk river is crossed by a bridge three hundred 
yards long, and an embankment of one thousand three hun- 
dred and twenty yards, when the roads diverge, that for Utica 
to the west, and for the Springs to the north-east. 

Union College may be advantageously seen while passing 
the bridge, on the right hand or south side of the Mohawk, 
on a gentle ascent, and displays two ranges of white build- 
ings, each two hundred feet long, and four stories high, of 
brick ; built from the proceeds of a State lottery in 1814. It 
has a president, (Dr. Nott,) several professors, lecturers, and 
tutors, a register. &.c. a library of ten thousand volumes, a 
museum, and chemical and philosophical apparatus : two hun- 
dred and fifty students, 

Con-TiHgh-karie-gugh-harie, or a great multitude collected 
together, was the Indian name of this place, and the tribe of 



Schenectady— Amsterdam. 47 

Mohawks, it is well known, that had their council-fires in this 
valley, could muster their thousands, and strike terror into 
their enemies; (see Colden's History of Five Nations.) The 
Indian name of Schagh-nack4aa-da, or beyond the pine plains, 
was applied to Albany. A few of the old Dutch buildings yet 
remain, and also a bridge over the Mohawk, nine hundred 
and ninety-seven feet long, (erected by Burr, noted in former 
days as a bridge builder.) There are rich and extensive flats 
in the vicinity. 



The Utica, and Sclienectady fSaii-road 

was begun in 1834, and finished in 1836-7; length seventy^ 
eight miles, cost one million six hundred thousand dollars, 
with engines, cars, &c. It is good stock, and pays well. The 
road is intended for a double track, and is level and favorable, 
having l)ut one grade over sixteen feet of ascent per mile. 

After leaving the branch road to the Springs, the main road 
adheres to the north bank of the Mohawk for seventy-four 
miles, and no line of rail- road could be more happily devised, 
or ably and triumphantly achieved than this, in its entire 
course. 

Amsterdam, sixteen miles from Schenectady, and sixty-two 
from Utica, is a small village, and has a run of watering and 
manufacturing power, (Chuctanunda Creek, a fine mill-stream 
from Saratoga County, falls one hundred and twenty feet, 
one hundred rods from its mouth near by,) and was the resi- 
<lence of the Johnson family befo.'-e the Revolutionary war, 
Col. Guy, Sir William, and Sir John, all stanch and con- 
sistent loyalists to their king. The stone house, one mile from 
the village, on the south side of the rail-road, was built by 
Col. Guy Johnson, and the one a mile onward was occupied 
by Sir John, all famous in the colonial history. 

A bridge extends across to the south side of the Mohawk in 
Florida, and if the cars breathe a minute or two, or take in 
water, the traveler can spring out and enter the restaurateurs 
for hot coffee and refreshments, that opportunely occur at 
intervals of about twenty miles. Four miles onward at Tribe's 
hill, observe at the south side of the Mohawk river, and east 
side of the Schoharie Creek, the site of old Fort Hunter, Queen 
Anne's Chapel, and the old Mohawk Castle, famous in our 



48 CaiLghnawaga — Fonda— The Nose— Palatine Bridge. 

early history. There also are some rude Indian paintings, or 
daubs of human figures on the rocks forming the banks of the 
Mohawk here. 

The outlet of the Schoharie Kill, that rises on the northern 
slopes of the Catskills, and the canal dam and bridge or tow- 
path across, tog-ether with the entire valley and foreground, 
is a combination of pleasing features of art and nature. 

Cau2:hnaioaga, twenty-four miles from Schenectady, and 
fifty-two from Utica, and four miles from Johnstown, thirty- 
nine from Albany, was an Indian village, and a principal town 
of the Mohawks, and signifies a coffin, from there being in 
the river opposite that place a large black stone. The present 
race of inhabitants are descende(i from Scotch, Dutch, Ger- 
man, and eastern or Yankees. The Hall erected by Sir 
\Villiarn Johnson in 1773, and occupied till his death, was 
four and three-quarter miles from this to the north, and on his 
farm was fought a battle by the Americans under Col. Wil- 
lett, and the Indians and their allies, the twenty-fifth October, 
1781. Most persons recollect Sir William Johnson's adroit 
reply to an Indian dream, in allusion to the fine red cloth and 
lace cloak that the Indian chief unluckily dreamed that Sir 
William had presented to him, and that Sir Wiliiam gave with- 
out hesitation ; but soon after, he had his dream, that the In- 
dian had given him a large tract of rich land, that the Mo- 
hawk gave up with equal liberality, but said that he should 
not dream again with the honorable baronet, 

Fonda, a short distance from the previous place, has the 
county buildings, and a fine new court-house is erected. The 
county-seat has recently been transferred here from Johnstown, 
ns the county of Montgomery also extends south of the Mo- 
hawk to Schoharie and Otsego. The church at Johnstown, built 
by Sir William, and containing his remains, was burnt in 1836. 

The Nose, thirty miles from Schenectady, is another protu- 
berance of St. Anthony, that like its namesake on the Hud- 
son, before described, see p. 18, here interposes an obstruction 
from a high spur coming down from the north, or right hand, 
that required considerable wrenching or blasting, to admit of 
the rail-road, and give sufficient right of way for the modern 
improvements. 

Palatine Bridge, thirty-five miles from Schenectady, on the 
south sideof thel-iver is Canajoharie and the rail-road to Cats- 
kill, seventv miles. 

A corn-rnill constructed by the Tn^'.onc: r>f a nirmlar hole in 



East Canada Creek -Fall Hill— Little Falls. 49 

the rock, into which was fitted a large stone lo grind their 
corn, formerly existed here above the nose, and gave the name 
of Bread Creek to the small stream. 

From Canajoharie to Cherry Valley are stages. 

Three miles west of Palatine Bridge, we are near Fort Plain, 
and Sharon Sulphur Springs on the opposite shore, where 
Capt. Butler, from his bloody visit lo Cherry Valley, came and 
tomahawked the settlers at this remote frontier post. 

Four miles west of Palatine Bridge we cross the East 
Canada Creek, on the line between Montgomery and Herki- 
mer Counties, (thirty-nine I'Vom Schenectady,) and in six miles 
arrive at Little Falls, (fifty-seven miles from Schenectady, 
and twenty-one from Utica,) and in three miles pass Gen. Her- 
kimer's grave on the south side of the river, near a brick 
house on a hill. 

Fall Hill is five hundred and eighteen feet above the canal, 
and seven hundred and twelve above tide in the Hudson, and 
is a spur that puts off to the north-west from the Catskill 
range, and is of granite and lime-stone intermixed. Vale half 
a mile wide. A dam of fifty feet liere would back the water 
to Oneida Lake. The cavities and water- worn rocks indicate a 
barrier formerly at this spot. 

As we draw near to the opening in the mountains, or as we 
approach the Liltle Falls, the contour of the scene becomes 
more impressive ; the hills on the opposing sides converge, 
restricting the river and the Erie Canal on the south, and the 
rail-road and the old turnpike on the north to the narrowest 
possible limits, and bringing them all under the eye of the 
visiter. The excavations in the solid rock for the purposes of 
the rail-road, almost equal those made for the canal, and 
claim our admiration and approval, both for the remarkable 
facilities allotted by nature in the formation of this celebrated 
pass or GAP on the Mohawk, (itself a prolonged deep valley 
or pass, extending exactly in the desired course for a hundred 
miles, thus admitting, side by side, a canal and road on the 
south side of the river, and the rail-road and turnpike on the 
other, leaving, in fact, very little use for the river, except to 
yield its waters to fill the canal ; thus exemplifying the reply 
of Brindtey, the engineer, who, when asked his opinion as to 
the use of rivers, replied, '' to feed navigable canals,") and also 
for the boldness and originality of the heads that conceived, 
and those that planned and executed, in an incredibly short 
period, the various massive and enduring works of art that 
5 



50 The Valley of the MokataL 

are here concentrated, and brought into prominent relief be- 
fore and around us. 

The eight old locks and excavations, on a puny scale, of 
the " Western Inland Lock Navigation Company," made forty 
years since, to obviate the obstructions and render navigable 
the Mohawk River through to the Oneida Lake, are here seen 
amid the rocks and rapids, as a memorial of the earliest at- 
tempt made in this State to introduce canal navigation ; but 
this did not remunerate the projectors well, and when the 
Erie Canal was effected, the State finally paid one hundred 
thousand dollars, to satisfy the claims of the stockholders in 
the old concern, (about one fifth part of their expenditures.) 
There are at this village one hundred and fifty houses, a church 
or two, a bank, and the whole has a substantial appearance. 

The traveler on the rail-road cannot do justice to the im- 
mense extent of the public works and expenditures here ex- 
hibited to him by the State of New-York, and by the Rail- 
road Company, in merely giving a bird's-eye view as he flies 
rapidly along, at the general and combined effect ; for here 
are not only locks, canals, rail-roads, and other roads, but 
also viaducts, aqueducts, water-falls, race-ways, mills, ma- 
chinery, and a noble stream urging its triumphant and 
foaming path over its rugged bed in the very midst, and giv- 
ing vast life, vigor, and animation to the assemblage of objects, 
but the face of the hill, also, is full of memorials of the changes 
that time and the elements have wrought out on the rocks in 
the lapse of ages, that to a geologist, or man of science, will 
be replete with interesting recollections. 

For several miles the beetling and rocky precipices en- 
croach very closely upon the scanty line of road, and barely 
admit of a joint use of the space for the three-fold purpose 
of the canal, river, and roads. The beautiful Aqueduct that 
spans over the entire volume of the Mohawk, that is here 
compressed into its narrowest limits, rests on two arches of 
fifty, and one of seventy feet, and thus forms a navigable 
feeder for the canal, one hundred and seventy ket long, and 
a link between the north and south shore. It is also a leading 
feature in the picture, and the curious traveler that is not sat- 
isfied with a transient and hasty glance, can leave the car to 
explore around for a (ew hours in this highly interesting re- 
gion, and proceed in the next train. Cross by the railing on 
the side of the aqueduct and descend on the stone bridge, and 
take a view of the central arch with the basin beneath, and 



Gulf Bridge— Herkimer. 51 

the chutes that come pouring down, and then scramble up to 
the top of the mountain to catch a view of the Mohawk val- 
ley for twenty or thirty miles, and examine ihe five locks, and 
the foundations of the canal, skirted by the deep and rapid 
river, and the huge rocks and mountain profiles. 

The long level of seventy miles on the Erie Canal, without 
a lock, commences at number fifty-three, and extends ou 
through Utica, Whitestown, Rome, Verona, Lenox, Sullivan, 
Manlius, Lodi, Salina, to Syracuse, Onondaga County. This 
comprised the easiest portion of the canal, and was the first 
finished in 1817. 

There will be no more mountain scenery compared to this, 
for the traveler to behold, for several hundred miles west, un- 
less he quits or diverges from the beaten track ; but there 
may be equally gratifying or varied scenes. 

The Gulf Bridge is a span of one arch of one hundred and 
sixty feet wide, and fifty above the stream, that occasionally 
discharges a very heavy body of water collected among the 
mountains and wild lands north of the Mohawk. In this vi- 
cinity much labor and expense was incurred by blasting rocks 
and forming embankments. 

In the township of Herkimer we bid adieu to the rough 
and rocky features around the Little Falls, and the road im- 
mediately enters upon a more sylvan scene, still adhering to 
the vicinity of the river, that is prettily skirted with dwarf 
trees and shrubs, and is seen meandering throughout for 
seven miles across the celebrated German Flats, a most fertile 
tract; but during the war of 1756 between the English and 
French, the Canadians and savages invaded this peacefid vale, 
to kill, burn, and destroy. The road then passes over IVest 
Canada Creek (Trenton Falls being a few miles north, see 
p. 53) by a good bridge, and in half a mile we are at Herkimer, 
the county town, sixty-four miles from Schenectady, and 
fourteen from Utica, in the midst of the rich flats. It has 
one hundred and fifty houses, and twelve hundred inhabi- 
tants, a courthouse, a jail, and a neat church. The village 
is pleasant to the eye, and the buildings comfortable. There 
is an obstruction made across the West Canada Creek, that 
forms a cascade above the bridge, and a canal is cut to the 
Mohawk, for mills. 

In five miles, the road crosses the Mohawk River to Frank- 
fort, on the south side of the Mohawk, and continues for nine 
miles through a series of fine farming lands, that indicates 



52 Utica— Celerity of Traveling. 

our approach to an inland city, that soon looms up at a dis- 
tance with prepossessing effect, and we find ourselves in the 
capacious Utica depot buildings, having finished (me of the 
most lovely rides possible, and a feast to the eye throughout, 
and passed in a rapid flight of four hours, along the most 
attractive parts of the Stale. 

The Rail-road to Syracuse, sixty miles west, follows, not 
far oir, the same monotonous level as the Erie Canal, and is 
continued to Auburn, twenty-seven miles, and will soon be 
made on and across the Cayug-a Lake and bridge, to Water- 
loo, and Geneva, Canandaigua, Bloomfield, Liva, Avon, (with 
a branch to Rochester,) Caledonia, Le Roy, Stafford, Bata- 
via, Buffalo. 

UTICA contains about ten thousand inhabitants, and is a 
central point for turnpikes, rail-roads, and canals, that radi- 
ate from this in all directions: the Chenango Canal to the 
south, the Black River Canal to the north, and the Erie Canal 
and the rail-roads to tiie east, north-west to Oswego, and west, 
and stages in every direction. Fort Schuyler, noted in the early 
history of this State, was on the site of a part of this city, 
near the river, and bridge, and the dep6t, and was an im- 
portant frontier post during the wars of 1756, and 1776-83. 
In 1784, after the peace, the first settlement commenced, and 
from 1789 to 1800 it went on prosperously, and has so con- 
tinued to the present time. The internal improvements of this 
State, from iheir concentration hereabouts, must ever make 
this an important inland town, and eventually, perhaps, the 
seat of the Legislature. 

The Rail-road to Oswego is to be continued through the val- 
ley of the Mohawk, near the river, and over the rich alluvial 
plains of Whitesboro', Rome, and along Wood Creek, and 
across Fish Creek, and by the north shore of the beautiful 
Oneida Lake and river outlet, in a north-west direction to Os- 
wego, at the mouth of the Oswego River, Lake Ontario, a dis- 
tance of seventy-five miles; from whence by steam-boat 
daily to Lewiston is one hundred and eighty-five miles ; the 
time required, twelve to fifteen hours; that, added to the four 
from Ulica, and four from Schenectady, one to Albany, and 
ten to New-York, gives thirty-one hours as the time by that 
route, or only twenty-four to twenty-seven hours via rail- 
road from New-York, Harlaem, to Albany, Schenectady, 
Utica. Oswego, and steam to Lewiston, (from New-Orleans 
by rail-road to Charleston in five days, and in three to New- 



Salmon River Falls — Trenton Falls. 53 

York, and one to Niagara, is only nine days,) amounting near 
to annihilation of time and space! 

The Salmon River Falls of one hundred and eight ieaX, in 
the township of Orwell, sixly-four miles north-west of Utica, 
may be visited by takins: the stage route to Sackett's Harbor, 
and diverging at Redfield to the west, towards the spot. Par- 
ties of pleasure may descend by water down the river from 
Redfield, or by land by a decent road, being but six miles. 
The current is moderate for three or four miles, then two 
miles of rapids occur, v/hen we arrive at the falls, whore the 
river is two hundred and fifty feet wide at some seasons, with 
the banks of slate and granite, or gneiss, rising seventy-five 
feet above the fjiUs on each side ; the waters are received into 
a chasm about one hundred and twenty-five or more feet in 
depth, making the precipice in all two hundred feet, and at 
the foot of the cataract there is a deep pool of water replete 
with fish of the first quality, viz. salmon, trout, &c. forming a 
well known and capital reservoir to supply the gourmands and 
hotels to a great distance around, that send here to replenish 
their larders and stock of fresh-water dainties. 

From Lake Ontario, the Salmon River is eight to ten rods 
in width for twenty miles above its mouth, and may be as- 
cended in high and favorable stages of water, even to the foot 
of the fails; and as they are well worthy of a visit, and have 
not hitherto been much known to the public, or minutely de- 
scribed, travelers will have another inducement to explore 
the hidden beauties of the recesses and waterfalls, anrl the 
geological formations of this extensive portion of the State, 
that yet retains much of its primitive wildness. 



Trenton Falls, 

fifteen miles from Utica in a north-east direction, on West 
Canada Creek, are too much in vogue to be omitted by 
the traveler in search of amusement, tifat has the least pre- 
tension to correct taste, and that follows in the footsteps 
of his predecessors in this fashionable route, though it in- 
volves the necessity of devoting at least ten or fifteen hours, 
and breaks ofl" from the regular routine in going east or west, 
and abstracts so much from the time and the purse ; yet ne- 
vertheless, those that come or go thus far to see all that is ac- 
5* 



54 Trenton Falls— West Canada Creek. 

tually worthy of notice, should by all means, in our opinion, 
make Iheir pilgrimage to this shrine, by forming an agreeable 
party, hiring a conveyance, and leaving Utica early in the 
morning, should it be intended to return m the afternoon, and 
devote only one day. The famous irout dinners that are 
usually procured at the hotel near the falls, are also one of 
the enjoyments of the place. Though it may excite surprise 
in some, yet we are constrained to declare, that the sensa- 
tions awakened in a lively and ardent iinaginalion, and the 
unmingled gratification derived by the spectator when the 
glories of this exquisite spectacle break upon his view, will 
for a lime absorb him in silent astonishment, and leave nothing 
more to wish for, so near is it to perfection. The traveller 
will at first be so overpowered by what he beholds, that it is 
pardonable if he should question if there can be on earth 
an exhibition of falling water equal or superior; but when 
his gust of feeling is over, he may subsequently have reason to 
change or modify this opinion as he travels farther and sees 
more, compares, and reflects, and discriminates, giving to all 
the due meed of praise, but even then, when he reverts to 
Trenton Falls in after life, the impression it first made upon 
his mind is strong and enduring, — perhaps unrivalled. 

West Canada Creek is about sixty miles long, and rises in 
the wild tracts, and interlocks with the sources of Black River 
in the high and bleak regions north of the Mohawk River, 
and forms one of the principal tributaries of the latter, and 
occasionally vomits forth its sudden and dangerous floods 
and wears and tears its impetuous course among the limestone 
and slaty rocks, until, near Trenton, it enters upon a series of 
descents of near forty feet down a ravine that it has worked 
for Ave miles into every various form of twisted and dis- 
torted aspect, and at the bridge on the road above the Little 
Falls begins to be remarkable, but three miles below, and 
two east of Trenton village, it increases upon and absorbs 
the wonder of the traveler. 

Following the path from the hotel or boarding-house, we 
arrive at the brink of a ravine, bordered by forest trees and 
evergreens of sf)ruce, fir, hemlock, &c. The a|)pearance of 
such a deep ravine in the general surface, that had not before 
been noticed in the approach, is the source of some surprise, 
and this is increased as we descend the stairway into the 
depths and gloom of the ravine, here, perhaps, one hundred 
and fifty or two hundred and fifty feet deep, and two hundred 



^iierman's Fall— High Falls— Mill Dam Fall— Cascades. 55 

wide, and find ourselves upon a floor or foundation of solid 
rock, and with a very limited extent of blue sky, or the vault 
or arch of heaven above our heads. On glancing- the eye 
around the walls of the immense chamber or enclosure that 
encompasses us, we admire the drapery that covers and or- 
naments the rocks, and the lichens of scarlet, green, and yel- 
low, the trees that wave over the margin, or impend in threat- 
ening attitudes, held only by a slight adhesion of their ro(»ts, 
jutting from the loose soil above, or the shrubs and creeping 
ivies, trailing down in graceful festoons from crevices high up 
and midway on the face of the precipice. 

As we advance slowly up, we note the regular horizontal 
arrangement of the limestone tliat comprises the sides, and 
the clear and massive pavement-like regularity beneath our 
feet; the mechanical form and regularity of the circular or 
deep cistern-shaped pools, or the square race-ways and chan- 
nels, as though chiseled by the hand of art, and leading from 
reservoir to cascade in endless variety, and passing through 
with unceasing force and rapidity. 

Contemplating in every aspect these wonders of the glen, 
we proceed to the falls in succession, beginning with 

Sherman's Fall, thirty-five feet, named after John Sher- 
man, the first occupant of the hotel, and one that was exten- 
sively known as a good lecturer to his visiters here on the 
numerous organic remains that are contained in the rock to h 
very remarkable extent, and that Mr. Sherman exhibited a 
profusion of it in his museum, after giving a capital dinner to 
his hearers and customers. Mr. Sherman formed the path, 
and placed the chains for the security of visiters that have 
the courage and curiosity to place themselves in these trying, 
queer, and delicate positions for nervous persons. 

The His:h Palls, one hundred and nine feet, divided into 
three difTerent and splendid chutes, of thirty-seven, eleven, 
and forty-eight, besides the connecting chain of irregular de- 
scent or slope, in grand floods or overflows are all combined 
into one descending mass of pure snowy-white foam, but in 
a drier season it finds its way over the rocks in separate 
channels. 

The Mill Dam Fall has a uniform pitch of fourteen feet 
only, and is one hundred and eighty feet wide. 

The Cascades, and intermediate chain of rapids, have a fall 
of eighteen feet, and are much more compressed by the jag- 
ged projections of the ravine. 



56 Stage Route to the Falls of Niagara. 

The Upper Fall is about twenty ieei, and is received into a 
capacious receptacle or reservoir, that is tapped and let off by 
a wild ravine, and the coup d'oeil from the bridge, or on the 
west side of the river, is very pleasing, and we have arrived at 
the head of the ravine, and beyond this, we have in a distance 
of two miles of rapids, a descent of fifty or sixty feet. There 
are other falls at and below Conrad's Mills, that do not require 
specific notice. 

When the writer visited these falls, the water was at that 
stag-e when there was evidently not the slightest danger to 
any prudent, careful person, not disposed to incur needless 
risk ; and when the water is lower than common, there is still 
enouohthat will please and reward the visiter, and during the 
excitement of an overwhelming freshet, no one would venture 
below the stairway. 

From Utica an important route extends south, along the 
banks of the Chenango River and Canal, through Oneida, 
Madison, Chenango, and Broome Counties, to Bnighamton 
on the Susquehannah River, about ninety-two miles, and 
thence east to Catskill, and also south-east through Pennsyl- 
vania and New-York to Newburgh, and also west to Oswego, 
Athens. Tioga Point, Chemung, Elmira, Painted Post, Bath, 
Batavia, Buffalo, or from Owego over the hills by a good 
road to Wi'kesbarre, or Valley of Wyoming, or through New 
Jersey by way of Milford, or Delaware, Morristovvn, and 
Newark, to New-York. 

The ride along the banks of the Susquehannah from its 
source in the Otsego Lake, southward to the Great Bend, 
and thence west for one hundred and fifty miles, through 
Bino'hamton, Owego, Newtown, and near the line of the 
New-York and Erie Rail- road, is capital, and also from Tioga 
Point down to Wyoming, Harrisburgh, and the coal mines. 

Stag^e Route froau Utica, to the Falls of 
N saggar a. 

{Until the enlnrs^ement of the Erie. Canal to seventy feet loidlh 
and six feet depth, to admit of the vse of steam-boats, or tintil a 
continnoim line of rail-road is effected from Auburn to Rochester 
and Buffalo.) 

New Hartford, four miles; Manchester, five; Vernon, eight; 
Oneida Castle, five; Lenox and Canostota, three; Quality Hill, 



Clinton Liberal Institute— Baptist Lit. ana ju .a.*. Imt. 57 

three; Chilteningo, five; (two routes from hence to Auburn 
and Cayuga Lake; the right hand, or northern, near the ca- 
nal, through Syracuse, Geddes, Milan, Camiilus, Eibridge, 
Brutus, Troopsville, forty miles,) the other as follows: to 
Manlius, seven; Jamesville, six; Onondaga Hollow and Creek, 
four; Onondaga on the hill, two; (Syracuse, and the salt 
works, and Onondaga Lake in sight down in the valley be- 
low, wiih the canal leading north to Oswego on Lake Onta- 
rio;) Marcelliis, eight; (falls two miles north, of sixty-five 
feet ;) and Skaneateless, six; (branch rail-road of four and 
a half miles to the north to Auburn and Syracuse rail-road:) 
Auburn, seven ; Cayuga, seven ; Seneca Falls, four; Water \ 
loo, four; Geneva, seven; (Canandaigua, fifteen; to Roches- 
ter, twenty-seven miles;) East Bloomfield, nine; West Bloom- 
field, five; Lima, four; Avon, five; Sulphur Springs, nine; 
Potosi, two. Cross Genesee River to Caledonia Large Spring, 
eight; Le Roy, six ; Batavia, ten ; Pembroke, fourteen ; Cla- 
rence, eight; Williamsville, eight ; Buffalo, ten. 

The ride from Utica to Neio Hartford, by the Sedaghqueda 
Creek, and line of Chenango Canal, is delightful, and in- 
dicates at the last place a wealthy, happy people, with their 
handsome, comfortable mansions, fine farms, gardens, one 
hundred and sixty buildings, three churches, and several 
mills. At a distance of three miles, observe the edifices of 
Hamilton College on the hill one mile and a half from the vil- 
lage of Clinton. The annual commencement is on the second 
Wednesday in August. There are three colleges, and a 
church of stone, A president, professors of Ethics and Po- 
litical Economy, Natural Philosophy and Chemistry, Lan- 
guages, Mathematics, and Astronomy, one tutor, one hundred 
and fifteen students. The late W. H. Maynard gave it twenty 
thousand dollars, and S. Dexter fifteen thousand dollars. 

The Clinton Liberal Institute, in the village of that name, 
consists of a farm for such as desire to pay a portion of the 
expenses of education by manual labor. There are two col- 
lege buildings, one of stone, ninety-six by fifty-two feet, and 
five stories high, with forty-four rooms for study, a lecture- 
room, and others for the professors. ISo sectarian or theolo- 
gical instruction admitted. 

Baptist Hamillon Literary and Theological Instilution, a 
stone house, one hundred by sixty feet, four stories, has sixty- 
eight chambers, a lecture-room, library, and chapel, a board- 
ing-house, a shop for work, a farm of one hundred and th|rty 



58 Oneida Castle — Cazenovia, SfC. 

acres. Four years is the regular course, two for theological j 
one hundred and eighty students; tuition sixteen doltars a 
year; board, washing, and lodging, one dollar a week. 

The same appearance of exuberance and fertility continues 
to Manchester, on the Oriskana Creek, a manufacturing vil- 
lage, and also to Vernon, with its churches, mills, and glass 
factory. The Oneida Castle and Creek is on the old Indian 
reservation of the Oneida and Tuscarora Indians, that but re- 
cently removed from this to Green Bay, or rather to Winne- 
bago Lake in Wisconsin. Lenox has one store, two taverns, 
thirty houses, one Presbyterian Church. Canoslota has four 
churches, four taverns, four stores, and several groceries and 
forwarding houses, one high school, and one hundred and 
thirty neat dwellings, and is seen a few rods north of the road 
on the canal and Caneseraga Creek. 

Chilleningo Creek and village, a branch canal of one mile 
and a half leads to the Erie Canal, and a small settlement, ba- 
sin, dry-dock, and boat-yard. The village contains one hun- 
dred and fifty houses, a large Dutch Reformed Church of 
stone, and academy of the same sect, and one Presbyterian 
and one Methodist church, three taverns, stores, &,c. It is on 
the outlet of Cazenovia Lake, from whence there is a descent 
of seven hundred and forty feet, including one pitch of one 
hundred and thirty-four feet, giving great water-power for 
eight or ten miles. Two mineral springs in the vale one mile 
above, of sulphur and magnesia ; hill on the east of calciferous 
slate, with springs liolding carbonate of lime, and forming 
petrifactions in abundance for cabinets. 

Lake Cazenovia, or Hawgeno, or Canaleraga, or Linklaen, 
is four miles long and one broad, and is a beautiful expanse, 
environed by a gently waving country. 

The town of Cazenovia is placed at the outlet of the lake, 
and has three hundred houses, neat, substantial, of limestone 
or brick, a bank, a land office, a ladies' seminary, and one for 
Methodists, of large brick buildings for one hundred and 
twenty-five boarders, and having two hundred and fifty pu- 
pils, male and female, a Presbyterian, a Congregational, a 
Baptist, and a Methodist church, five mills, two woollen fac- 
tories, a wire loom, three hotels, two drug, one book, and ten 
dry-good stores, ashery, tannery, six groceries. Col. Linklaen 
begun this town in 1795, and it is a charming spot, and land« 
around it are forty to fifty dollars the acre. Cannot the 
traveler step aside for an hour or two, and examine this pretty 
lake and town ? 



Manlius— Green Pond— Onondaga West Hill. 59 

Manl'ms, in Onondaga County, on the east of Limestone 
Creek, at the junction of several roads, is ten miles south-east 
of Syracuse, and forty west of Utica; has three churches, 
one hundred and fifty houses, two taverns, six stores, one cot- 
ton factory, and several mills. One mile south of the village, 
and on both branches, are falls, one of a hundred, and one of 
fifty feet; also a sulphur spring with petrifying qualities. 

Green Pond is one and a half miles long by three-quarters 
wide, and is sunk two hundred feet below the level of the 
rocky shores, and is two hundred feet deep. The surface is 
a mirror of deep green. It is in the town of Jaraesville, six 
miles from Manlius. 

Onondaga Hollow and Valley is remarkable for being the 
chief seat of the power of this tribe, one of the confederation 
of the five nations that ruled this State. The Onondaga Creek 
is a lively stream that runs from south to north for ten miles, 
through a broad rich valley of the deepest soil of vegetable 
mould, and enters the Onondaga Lake at its south-east cor- 
ner near Salina. The old castle or council-house, the ancient 
seat of Indian power, and the reservation and town recently 
held by them, was three miles south of the road, in fifty log 
houses on a long street, and perchance some of the remnant 
of the tribe may yet be seen lingering about in the neigh- 
borhood, or at Syracuse. The Indian name for the whole 
confederacy was Aganuschioni, or United People, and by 
the French, Iroquois, and consisted of the Mohawks, Onon- 
dagas, Cayugas, Senecas, Tuscaroras; these sold out to 
the State of New-York, for two thousand dollars annually, 
their claim to a larse portion of the central and western 
part of this Stale. Some reside on Grand River in Canada, 
others at Buffalo, and some are gone farther west. The vil- 
lage settlement in the hollow has two churches, two mills, an 
academy, one store, three taverns, and sixty houses. The vi- 
cinity of Syracuse, only four miles, and the great canal, have 
drawn off the business. There is also a South Onondaga ten 
miles from Syracuse, that has a church, a store, tavern, and 
a few houses. There is also 

Onondaga West Hill, is on the hill that looks abroad very 
extensively over hill and valley, lake and city. Here is a 
Presbyterian and Episcopal church, the old court-house, pri- 
son, fire-proof clerk's office, two taverns, four stores, and fifty 
dwellings, and some old respectable residents, or early set- 
tlers. For a description of Syracuse, ( and of the salt works.) 
Salina, Liverpool, Geddes, and of the lake, see canal. 



60 Marcellus Creek— Skaneateles— Auburn. 

Marcdlus, on Nine Mile Creek, the outlet of the Otisco Lake 
a few miles south, and that is four miles long and one wide, 
and runs into the Onondaga Lake, has a church, and seventy- 
five or one hundred houses. The waters hereabout possess 
strong petrifying- qualities, and a specimen may be seen on 
the bank, of a large tree partly imbedded in limestone, by in- 
quiring of the village physician or minister. There is an 
abundance of fine blue limestone of good quality, and of the 
water lime or cement, mills, factories, &c. and two miles 
north, falls of seventy feet. 



Skaneateles, 

at the outlet of the lake, is the second of those attractive 
lake cities (Cazenovia being the first) that we encounter 
in traveling this great western thoroughfare. It contains 
four churches, an academy, and five grist-mills that can make 
forty thousand barrels of flour annually, also four saw, four 
carding and cloth-dressing mills, two woollen factories, two 
furnaces and founderies, two machine-shops, four tanne- 
ries, two carriage factories, two taverns, eight stores, three 
hundred houses, and two thousand one hundred and fifty in- 
habitants. The site of the village is unsurpassed in its com- 
plete command of the lake, that is as transparent as air; its 
banks romantic, picturesque, and rising into eminences of 
several hundred feet at its southern termination; it abounds 
with trout in its deep cool waters, that reflect like a mirror, 
the hills and slopes, woods, meadows, and pure white farm 
houses. Petrifactions also abound here; on the east, and on 
a level wilh the water, are organic remains of the cornu 
ainmonis, imbedded in slate. Three miles north of the out- 
let, the creek sinks into the rocks below the falls of seventy 
feet, and is lost for some distance, but (his is often the case in 
Florida, and in limestone countries. The Indian name of 
this lake, as preserved, means long; it is fed by springs, and 
is fifteen miles long by one half to one and a half wide. 



Auburn, 

is the third of the series of elegant lake cities; contains 
eight hundred and fifty houses, and live thousand five 



Auburn— State Pnson. 61 

hundred and fifty-five inhabitants, a Theological Seminary, 
eight churches, twenty-seven schools, two banks, capital four 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, court-house, jail, clerk's 
office, sixty-two stores of all kinds, and factories of tools, 
clockg, candies, combs, cabinet ware, saddles and harness, 
looking-glasses, leather and morocco, boots and shoes, hats, 
tobacco, bellows, burr mill-stones, coverlets, carpets, cot- 
ton-cards, threshing machines, tea-kettles, japanned ware, 
steam-engines, carriages. There are three bookstores and 
binderies, five merchant tailors, eight blacksmiths, three dis- 
tilleries, one brewery, three furnaces, four flour-mills, one 
marble yard, two livery stables, two wool carding: and clothiers, 
one dentist, two portrait painters, six milliners, five dress ma- 
kers. 

Auburn is two and a half miles from the lake, but on the 
outlet that has ample water-power. The streets are wide, 
paved or macadamized, and there are handsome ranges 
of stone and brick stores, and in the retired parts some taste- 
ful dwellings and embellished grounds. The public buildings 
built in 1836-7-8 are honorable to the inhabitants, and its 
domes, colonnades, &c. place it far ahead of many other west- 
ern towns. Its hotels are good. 

The celebrated ST.\TE-PRISON may be seen on buying a 
ticket of the keeper, and the best time is early in the morning, 
when they are brought out of their cells and arranged in 
squads, close as they can squeeze, in Indian file, stepping off 
and stamping hard with a .simultaneous lock-step, eyes to their 
overseer, head erect, each bearing his pail on one of his folded 
arms in perfect silence, entering their various shops, and kept 
at constant labor during the regular hours, till four o'clock 
P. M. when the muffled bell is struck, all labor is suspended, 
and the convicts, eight or nine hundred, return in the same 
manner to their cells, and are separately locked up for the 
night. The most minute precision is required in all their move- 
ments. The walls that form the inclosure are thirty-five feet 
high, four thick, and two thousand feet in extent, or five hun- 
dred feet each front. The interior yard has ample reser- 
voirs of water, and a range of workshops of brick, lighted 
in the sides and roof. The cost was over three hundred thou- 
sand dollars, not including the convict labor. The Owasco 
Creek flows alongside the prison walls on the south. 

It is seven miles to the Erie Canal at Weed's Basin, and 
stages ply constantly to and fro, and twenty-two miles by the 
6 



tl Aurelius-^Ilhaca. 

rail-road to Syracuse, there are great quantities of gypsum, 
or plaster of Paris, quarried on this route, and abundance of 
the best lime stone. 

Anrelius, four miles west of Auburn, has two taverns, two 
stores, and twenty houses. Cayuga, three miles further, at 
the foot of the Cayuga Lake, has a church, high school, three 
taverns, four stores, and forty houses. The longest bridge 
in the State, it being one mile and eight rods, here extends 
over and across the lake, and gives the traveler in passing, a 
satisfactory vievi^ of the lake, and its highly beautiful and 
cultivated shores, far as the eye can reach. A steamer runs 
to and from Ithaca daily, from the bridge, to meet canal-boats 
at certain hours. (Travelers intending to go to Ithaca or 
Owego, should, at Utica, or Syracuse, or at Auburn, where 
they agree to take the stage, only pay the fare to the Cayuga 
bridge, and take the sieam-boat for Ithaca, and arrive at the 
head of the lake, thirty-six miles, in three or four hours.) 
Just before his arrival there he will notice on the east shore 
a foaming cascade come pouring down the ledges of the slate- 
rock, 

A car starts on the rail-road for Owego soon after the boat 
arrives at Ithaca, and traveling but slowly, gets in about seven 
or eight o'clock; twenty. nine and a half miles; the most 
defective route in the State. Good hotels are at Ithaca, and 
fine views in the environs, especially on the summit of the 
hill overlooking the town, and lake, and shores, with its parti- 
colored squares of farms and woods. The efi'ect of the dis- 
tant aerial perspective is grand. 

A stage leaves Ithaca early the next morning for Bath, 
twenty-two miles, at the head of the Seneca Lake, and arrives 
in time for the steam-boat that goes dowia for Geneva, unless 
the tourist inclines to remain at Bath, to breathe a few hours 
and look around. 



Ittiacsa. 

is our fourth city of the lakes. In front, and between it 
and the head of the lake, are three thousand acres of allu- 
vial flats, from which the hills ascend on three sides, amphi- 
theatrically, five hundred feet, with truly magnificent effect, 
and the picturesque character of the environs is improved and 
made eminently attractive by the Fall Creek, the Casca- 



Bridgeport—Seneca Falls, 63 

dllla, and Six-mile Creeks, that find their way over the hills, 
and pay tribute to the Cayuga, Fall Creek rises in Lock 
Pond, Summer Hill, Cayuga County, fourteen hundred feet 
above tide, and flows south and south-west thirty miles, and 
falls, near Ilhaca, within one mile, four hundred and thirty- 
eight feet, over rocks of dark gray wacke slate ; this is best seen 
from the bridge or steam boat. The last fall is one hundred 
and sixteen feet, down a steep succession of narrow ledges of 
rock or stairway to the lake level. The rocks each side above 
the falls, rise one hundred and ten feet, and enclose a pool for 
the mills below, that is drawn oflf or tapped, by a tunnel 
through the rock, thirteen feet high, twelve broad, and two 
hundred long, and is made to be used five or six times with a 
twenty feet head of water. tThe Cascadilla leaps down a 
gigantic stairway one hundred feet, and Five-mile Creek is 
still more surprising. 

There are five churches, a court-house and prison, clerk's 
office, thirteen mills, four factories, thirteen taverns, twenty- 
eight general stores, many groceries, druggist stores, four 
printing-offices, two book-stores, one bank, capital two hun- 
dred thousand dollars, and one of two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars, eight hundred dwellings, and four thousand 
inhabitants. 

Bridgeport, at the west end of Cayuga bridge, contains a 
store, two taverns, and thirty dwellings. 



Seneca Falls 

is three miles west of the Cayuga Lake and Bridge, on the 
Seneca River, the outlet of the Seneca Lake, and where 
there is within twelve hundred yards, a heavy waler-power 
of forty-seven feet over four dams. In seven flour mills are 
twenty-four runs of stones that make eighty-five thousand 
barrels of flour. Of other mills, are one for paper, six saw, 
four plaster, three clove, and two oil, one clothing works, 
one clock and one cotton factory, dyeing and bleaching, ono 
furnace, three sash and window-blind factories, one tannery, 
one distillery, one machine shop, four taverns, six lawyers, 
five piiysicians, twenty stores, five hundred dwellings, and 
three thousand five hundred inhabitants; five churches, a 
newspaper and printing-office, an academy. In 1827, only 
two hundred and sixty-five inhabitants. Land sells fifty to 



64 Waterloo— Geneva. 

seventy dollars the acre. The water power can drive two 
hundred thousand spindles. At Chamberlahi's Mills, two 
miles from the above town, and one from Waterloo, is a 
flouring and plaster mill, and fifteen houses. The lively 
aspect of the town of Seneca Falls strikes the stranger most 
favorably, and denotes that from its water-power and manu- 
facturing propensities here is destined to be a flourishing vi- 
cinity, a wealthy and comfortable population. 



Waterloo, 

four miles from Seneca, is also on the river or outlet of Se 
neca Lake, and has three grisly two oil, two sawmills, two 
distilleries, one furnace for castings, two tanneries, three 
clothiers, pail, tub, churn, and wooden bowl factory, one 
ashery, one boat-yard, one newspaper, two large hotels, three 
taverns, twelve dry-goods, and one hardware store, court- 
house, jail, six lawyers, five physicians, three hundred and 
fifty houses, three churches, two thousand inhabitants. This 
is also an active, bustling place. Seven miles to the west, we 
arrive at 



Geneva, 

following the northern shore, and crossing the outlet or drain 
of the lake, where there is a strong current issuing out, of 
clear, green, pure water. 

The land between the Cayuga and Seneca Lakes rises into 
very lofty hills, and is capital soil for wheat, but liable to 
drought, &c. From the roads skirting each lake, and sur- 
mounting the hills, are a series of splendid views. There are 
eight churches. The Geneva College is under the regents of the 
University of the State ofNew-York,and has a President, a Pro- 
fessor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, of the French, 
German, and Spanish, of Chemistry and Mineralogy, and appli- 
cation to Agriculture and Arts, of Engineering and Statistics, 
besides two tutors. There is a Medical department, with Pro- 
fessors of Chemistry, Anatomy, and Physiology, of [nsfruction 
and Practice of Medicine, of Surgery, of Obstetrics and Ma- 
teria Medica, and of Medical Jurisprudence, and Botany. Not 
confined to classics. Students fifty-three. Buildings of stone. 



Geneva. 65 

There is a bank with four hundred thousand dollars capital, 
three hundred and seventy-four dwellings, and three thousand 
inhabi'tants, twenty-three stores, twenty store-houses, seventy- 
three workshops, sixteen steam gfrist, one saw mill, one air 
furnace, two machine shops, one steam-engine factory, fifteen 
dry goods, five drugs, two hardware, twelve groceries, nine 
taverns, nine shoe makers' stores, five tailors, nine smiths, two 
confeciionaries, one edge tool, three saddlers, four carriage 
makers, two chair makers, four silver smiths, one plough, two 
threshing machine factories, one burr millstone, two tin, one 
rifle, one lead pipe and metal pump, one sash, and three hat 
factories and stores, five cabinet makers, one artist, two print- 
ing-offices and papers, two book stores, two binderies, one 
museum, eleven law, and one insurance office, six milliners, 
two hay scales, two bakers, one upholsterer, one tallow chand- 
ler, one stocking weaver, one auction store, three barbers, a 
young ladies' school, three grammar schools, tv/o district and 
seven common, and six hundred pupils. 

Geneva, our fitth lake city, is situated at the north-west cor- 
ner of Seneca Lake, on a fine slope, giving the inhabitants a 
noble view of the lake, and those residing on the east side 
of the street have terraced gardens down to the lake, that 
have an admirable effect. The rest of the town is on a summit 
one hundred and twenty feet above the lake, giving a view 
to all, as it rises in gradations, and covered with neat villas 
and seats, court-yards, gardens, &lc. The compact part is on 
lower ground. Fatnilies enjoying wealth and leisure firjd 
this a desirable residence. A sleam-boat leaves this place 
daily, at 7 A. M., for the south or head of the lake, Jefier- 
sonville, and is back at night. During the lake trip, observe 
on the east shore, the town of Ovid on the height of land, 
eighteen mile?., and the capital farms occupying the hills far 
nsthe eye can reach ; and opposite is Dresden, where the wa- 
ters of the crooked lake come in. from the west, and where 
that female humbug. .lemima Wilkinson, had her farm and 
her followers, as all fanatics in this country can readily pro- 
cure Mormons and Matthias, &c. Long, or Elephant Point, is 
four miles south. In six miles south is Jemima's walk in or 
on the wafer place of exhibition, and in six miles south is 
Starkie's Point, with deep water close in shore, and in four 
miles more, a fall of one hundred and tliirty-six feet, and in a 
ravme still farther, is a fall of one hundred and fifty feet in 
the town of Hector, three miles from Jeflfersonviile. The 
6* 



66 Canandaigua. 

lake is ict-pfoof, or so deej) that it never freezes, but stearas 
it profusely in cold weather. 

From Geneva is a branch canal of fifteen miles to the Erie 
Canal. Wheat, barley, wool, whiskey, beef and pork, pearl 
and potashes, butter, flour, lumber, glass, and grass seed, are 
bought up iiere for eastern markets. Eight miles west of 
Geneva is Flint Creek, running north into the Canandaigua 
outlet at Vienna, eight miles north ; and in seven miles from 
Flint Creek is 

€anandaig:iia, 

our sixth lake city, contains three thousand inhabitants, 
and five hundred dwellings, some of them not exceeded 
in style or good taste in architecture by any city or place 
whatever. The great charm and most attractive feature 
in this suburban villa, is the embov»'ered and rural aspect, 
the neatness of the front yards, and of the ample gardens, 
pleasure grounds, walks, shrubberies, shaded and paved 
streets and side-walks, and all those agreeables denoting com- 
fort, good society, and wealth. It is on two long parallel 
streets, north and south, and others at right angles. Has four 
churches, an academy for males, and one for females ; the 
former edifice is eighty by forty, three stories high; expense 
of tuition, board, &c. one hundred dollars per annum. School 
teachers are educated and taught. The Ontario bank with a 
capital of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, a branch of 
the Utica bank with one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, 
oight public houses, including two large hotels, Blossoms' and 
Pitts', three fire companies, seventeen law offices, ten physi- 
cians, two book-stores, three printing-offices and papers, six- 
teen stores of all trades, two hat and two tin factories, one gun 
smith, a steam grist, and a windmill, a furnace for castings, 
two tanneries, one brewery, two asheries. There is a fine 
view of the lake from all parts of the town. The lake is 
fourteen miles long, and one and a half to two broad; has 
a steam-boat that trips it daily for the accommodation of the 
public and of strangers. The Burning Springs are on each 
side of the lake, three miles ofT, and in Bristol, eight miles 
south-east from Canandaigua, and also one to two miles 
south-west of Rushville, in a long valley, and in winter they 
form openings in the snow, and the fire being applied, the 



Rochester. 67 

'jvovel sight of a flame rising out of the snow is witnessed, and 
in very cold weather, tubes of ice are formed around these 
currents of gas to the height of two or three feet, the gas is- 
suing from their tops, and when lighted, more brilliant than 
the former. 



Kochester, 

twenty-seven miles from Canandaigua, in a north-west direc- 
tion, can be visited by stage and the rail- road* taken for thirty- 
two miles thence to Batavia ; or the traveler can take the canal 
to Lockport, and see the wonders there, the huge double 
locks, the grand natural basin, and the deep rock excavation of 
several miles, and by rail-road thence to Niagara Falls, or con- 
tinue on by canal through the entire route once, and take some 
other method in returning. Whichever way may be adopted, 
we shall perfect our stage route, however, west of Canandai- 
gua, and after crossing two small streams running north, in 
nine miles we arrive at East Bloomjield, with its two churches, 

* Tonnawanta Rail-road was constructed in the following cheap and 
simple manner : " Large posts of twenty-four or thirty inches in diameter 
were placed on each side of the track opposite to each other, and to 
enter tlie earth firm and hard, to .sustain the side timbers of the track, and 
squared at the top. Each set of posts ten feet apart. Upon the top of 
these posts were laid transversely, sticks of timber twelve or fifteen inches 
in diameter, mortised on the upper side near each end, to receive the lon- 
gitudinal timbers, that, being I'rom sixteen to twenty inches in diameter, 
hewed only on the upper side, and intended for the support of each of 
the rails, were let into the mortises of the transverse timbers, and sup- 
ported by them at the posts. This, where embankments were made, gives 
a very substantial frame-work of the proper grade. On the top of the 
longitudinal timbers, wooden ribbons, as a substitute for iron rails, were 
laid. Rail-road cars were procured to carry earth, with four bo.xes each, 
turning on hinges, to drop the earth between and over the sides of the 
rails. These cars were loaded at places of excavation, moved by horse- 
power on the track lo make embankments. The same frame-work was 
used and put down where excavations were made. When the road was 
finally prepared for operations, pine scantling, three by four inches, were 
laid on the longitudinal timbers, and ironplate rail on the scantling, and 
all securely fastened by heavy spikes seven inches long." In a country like 
this, aboundins in timber, this is the most economical, but not durable. 
The whole timber work, except the scanllinp, is covered with earth to pre- 
vent decay, and the frame-work and earth add mutual support and 
strength. This does well, and if cars run off tho track, they are receiv«d 
on the ground, and not on cross timbers. 



68 Avon Springs — Le Roy. 

two taverns, two stores, thirty houses, one tannery, situated 
on high and commanding ground, and having the most cele- 
brated farms and choice wheat lands. Five miles beyond, we 
reach Wtsl Bhomjield, and in a mile we cross the Honeoye 
Creek, the combined outlet of three small lakes at eight or ten 
miles south, that runs into the Genesee River, and in four miles 
we arrive at Lima; the whole distance from East Bloomfield 
being through farms in first-rale order, fence, and keeping. To 
East Avon five, and the Post Office two miles more from Lima, 
passing the notoriously rich valley of the Genesee Finis, and 
ten miles south, the IVadsu'ortli Farm at Geneseo, and Mount 
Morris, (for the falls of Genesee, also for the line of the 
canal extending from Rochester south, up the Genesee Val- 
ley, see index.) 

The two ^von Springs rise within an eighth of a mile from 
each other, about a mile south of ttie village. It is useful for 
its sulphureous qualities. Here are three boarding-houses, 
much resorted to by the country people; a remarkable pond 
enclosing Indian works, and a root that is peculiar to the f^ats 
hero, of gigantic size, may be worth inquiring for. 

After crossing the Genesee River on a substantial bridge, 
the road varies its course to the north-west, and in eight miles 
we arrive at t!ie Big Spring at Culedortia, that must be seen as 
it is near at hand, and is quite an anomaly in its way, bursting 
out a full grown mill-tace. This is prohalily the lost water from 
Allen's Creek at the hii;h falls in Le Roy, seven miles west, 
and they rejoin that stream in two or three miles north in 
Wheatland. A stage runs from this to Koehester, twenty 
miles north-east. Here are two Presbyterian churches, four 
taverns, four stores, one flouring and one saw mill, one 
brewery, and sixty houses. 



L.e Roy, 

on an eminence on Allen's Creek, is our next agreeable^ 
looking settlement in six miles from the Big Spring, and 
here are the falls that supply it through apertures in the 
lime-stone rock that prevails in this region. Here are four 
churches, two large mill*, each with fonr runs of stones, and 
making forty thousand barrels of flour per annum, one oil 
and one plaster inill, a furnace for castings, a tannery, a ma- 
chine factory, fifteen stores, three taverns, four lawyers, five 



Baiavia. 69 

doctors, fifteen hundred inhabitants, two hnndred and fifty 
houses of stone, with gardens and grounds on a liberal scale, 
and very pleasing to the stranger. Tlie land office for the 
triangular tract is here. The fall here in Allen's Creek is 
eighteen feet, and in one mile, twenty-seven feet more, and 
in two miles is one of eighty feet. The creek at Le Roy has 
a stone bridge of three arches. Beyond this creek we enter 
on the great plain of the west, throwing off streams on all 
sides. Look for more petrifactions on the bed of the creek 
six hundred feet north of the bridge. 



Batavia, 

ien miles from Le Roy, is situated on the Tonnev;anta 
Creek; and is the first stream that we have thus far en- 
countered that pays its tribute to the Niagara above the Falls. 
The stream pursues a course from east to west, on an ele- 
vated rocky plateau, about four hundred feet higher than 
Lake Ontario, and seventy or eighty above Lake Erie. The 
highest terrace in the southern part of Genesee County is 
eight hundred feet above Lake Ontario, consequently rises 
fotir hundred feet in thirty-five miles, less than twelve feet to 
the mile, and not perceptible to the eye, being almost a dead 
level, and having barely descent to drain the country. The 
elevation is by ridges, as is seen by the streams cutting 
through the rock to the north. From this elevated plateau 
the drain to the west is to Lake Erie; on the east to the 
Genesee River, and on the south to Cattaraugus Creek. The 
Tonnawanta has a meandering course of forty miles in a 
valley two to four miles wide. 

Here ore three churches, a land office, a bank, capital one 
hundred thousand dollars, a flouring mill with four runs of 
stones, three large brick hotels and five taverns, twelve dry- 
good, two hardware, two drug, and one bookstore and bindery, 
two printing-offices and papers, a bell foundery and gun smith, 
two tanneries, two batteries, three millineries, four shoe-stores, 
one iron foundery, five phygicinas, nine law offices, three hun- 
dred houses, one thousand six hundred and fifty inhabitants. 
Lands within three miles of the village sell from twenty to forty 
dollars the acre, A rail-road of thirty-two miles, called theTon- 
nawanta, extends to Rochester, and others to Buffalo and Lock- 
port will soon be finished. Here are many neat residences of 



70 Buffalo. 

the wealthy land-owners of tho vicinity. The less tliat is saica 
abont tlie masonic murder of Morgan, or of his abduction, or 
of the miserable log or corduroy roads from this to the west, 
the better, as, wlien the rail-road is completed, as it soon 
will be on the entire route, all old grievances will be forgotten. 
East Pembroke post-office is six miles west from Batavia. 
West Pembroke pos,t-n^ce is at Richville, eight miles i'arther. 
Clarence Hollow, or Kensent Grove, has a church, forty houses, 
one ashery, one grist and sa\v-mi!l, one distillery, one tannery, 
two taverns, five stores, three groceries. IVilliamsviUe, ten 
miles noi th-east of Buffalo, has a Catholic Church, a grist, 
saw, and water lime mill, and a quarry of the same, fifty 
houses, four groceries, one dry goods, two taverns, one tan- 
nery, 

Buffalo, 

the queen of the lake cities, is admirably situated at the 
outlet of Lake Erie, and at the head of the Niagara river, 
and at the western extremiiy of the Grand Erie Canal, 
There is a rail road of eighteen miles leading to Niagara 
Falls, and a series of rail-ioads to Batavia, Rochester, and 
from Auburn to Syracuse, Utica, Schenectady, Albany. 
From the terrace the land rises by a very gentle acclivity for 
two miles to a level plain, presenting a wide and enchanting- 
view of the lake, the Niagara Kiver, the canal, and its 
brandies, the city and the Canada shore. The streets are 
broad, and intersect usually at right angles. There are 
three public squares, a bank, and some airy wide streets, with 
neat villas, court-yards and gardens, a lyceum and library. 
The Erie Canal is continued along the entire lake in front of 
the city to Little Buffalo Creek, with frequent lateral cuts and 
basins, bringing all the lower part of the city in reach of the 
canal facilities. 

A mole or pier of wood and stone, of fifteen hundred feet 
long, extends from the south side of the creek, out into the 
lake, so as to form a partial break-water, to protect boats 
and shipping from the violent gales that are felt, though still- 
wafer is made for a mile on the creek, and a ship canal 
eighty feet wide, and thirteen deep, and seven hundred yards 
long, is also now made. A light-bouse on the head of the 
pier, of dressed yellowish lime-stone, forty-six feet high and 



Buffalo. 71 

Iweniy \n diameter at the base ; is a durable structure, and or- 
namental to the city. The cost of the pier, &c. was about 
one hundred thousand dollars, seven-eighths being paid by 
the United Stales. 

Buffalo is the port of entry for the Jfiagara District, in- 
cluding Silver Creek, Dunkirk, and Portland, and all above 
the Falls. It is the dep6t of the trade for the upper lakes, 
Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and part of Illinois, Indiana, and 
Ohio, including a lake coast of 5,719 miles. 

The city has twenty-five thousand inhabitants, three thou- 
sand houses, one hundred and fifty-two streets, fifteen 
churches, two seminaries, many district and select schools, 
two theatres, a court-house, jail, two hundred stores, three 
banks, aggregate capital one million, many hotels and tav- 
erns, sis newspapers, and a great variety of manufactories. 
It is divided into five wards, and has a mayor and common 
council that are elected annually. Its streets are paved, re- 
gular, and laid out in reference to the natural slopes : a por- 
tion of it that was formerly low and marshy near the creek 
and lake is liable to bo submerged during violent storms. 

The buildings are in general decent, some are splendid, 
and the stores recently erected are four and five stories high. 
Nearly two-thirds of the merchandise received at Buffalo 
goes no farther, being for the use of the city and vicinity. 
Sixty mails arrive and depart weekly. Postage in 1835, twenty 
thousand eight hundred and eighty-one dollars. The amount 
invested by her citizens in steam-boats, and lake vessels, 
canal-boats, &c. about one million; advances on freight and 
produce passing east and west, two millions; manufactures 
yearly, two millions; and sales in addition, one million seven 
hundred and forty-eight thousand seven hundred dollars ; ex- 
pended in building in a year, one million one hundred and thirty 
thousand dollars; arrivals and departure of vessels in 1835, in 
two hundred and ten days was seven hundred and twenty 
steam-boats each way ; other vessels, nine hundred and twenty 
each way; canal clearances, five thousand one hundred and 
Iwenty-six ; tolls received, one hundred and five thousand six 
hundred and sixty-three dollars. The University of Westerh 
New- York is here established on a liberal foundation, by en- 
dowments or donations to the amountof two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars. The terrible revulsion and derangement 
of the currency in 1837 prostrated for a time the energies 
and growth of this place. 



72 Buffalo— Seneca Reservation. 

The town was originally laid out in 1801 by the HoUarid 
Land Company, on the hill or terrace, fifty feet above the 
lake, and in part on Ihe low ground or marsh towards the 
lake and creek. The draining of the inarsh has rendered 
it fit for building, and it is now the business part of the city. 

The Lake Erie boats leave at regular intervals in the morn- 
ing and at night. Boats are despatched to the Upper Lakes 
as often as the case requires. At each port sufficient time is 
allowed to take in freight and provide every luxury for pas- 
sengers. The prices are, to Cleveland, in the cabin, six dol- 
lars ; steerage, two dollars fifty cents. Detroit, eight dollars ; 
steerage, three dollars. 

The prices of freight, charged 

From Buff'alo to Chicago, Light, per 100 lbs. 87^ cents, 
" " " Heavv, " 62^ " 

" " Barrel bulk, $1 50 " 

" " Silver Creek, Dunkirk, and 

Barcelona^ 25 a 35 " 

" " Erie, Grand River, and 

Cleveland, '27 a 50 " 

«' " Ports above Cleveland, 

to Detroit, 30 a AQ " 

During one week twenty-seven steamers and thirty eigh* 
brigs and schooners entered the harbor of Buffalo, bringing 
forty-four thousand two hundred and seventy-four bushelss 
wheat ; fifteen thousand nine hundred and eight barrels flour ; 
one thousand four hundred and twenty-five barrels pork ; two 
thousand six hundred and fifteen bushels corn ; two hundred 
and fifty casks ashes ; seven hundred and nineteen hides ; 
fifty-seven bales of buffalo robes and deer skins — besides im- 
mense quantities offish, glass, brooms, staves, &.c. The busi- 
ness of the canal is great ; frequently thirty boats arrive in 
one day, and sixty are cleared from the collector's office for 
the east — all well loaded. 

The Seneca Reservation has nine hundred Indians, including 
some Onondagas and Cayugas, is from three to four miles 
south-east of Buffalo, and is eighteen miles by seven on 
Buffalo Creek and its branches, and amounts to forty-nine 
thousand acres, fertile and reaching near the city bounds. 
North of the reserve, the average price of improved farms is 
twenty-five dollars, and south, twenty dollars the acre. With- 
in five miles from the city, they are from one hundred to 
three hundred dollars per acre, caused by the Indian lands 



Grand Island—Black Rock. 73 

not coming into market, and by the vicinity of the lake re- 
stricting the lands in that direction. 

Limestone lies in deep horizontal stratified masses on the 
banks of the Niagara, between Buffalo and Black Rock, Bird 
Island, opposite Black Rock, is a naked rock frequently un- 
der water. Squaw Island, at t!\e (hot of the Black Rock ra- 
pids, contains one hundred and thirty-one acres. Strawberry 
Island, one liundred acres. Beaver Island, thirty acres. Rat- 
tlesnake island, forty-eight acres. Tonnawanta island, sixty- 
nine acres. Cayuga Island, Buckhorn Island, Goat or Iris 
Island, seventy-five acres. 

Grand Island (Ovvanungah) begins five miles from the 
lake, and measures around its edge twelve, and in width 
three to six miles, and ends three from the Falls; contains 
seventeen thousand three hundred and eighty-four acres 
covered with oak of the first quality for ship building. A 
company from Boston now own it, and have a village called 
While Haven, of fifty families and two hundred workmen, 
opposite the mouth of Tonnawanta Creek, and a steam, grist 
and saw mill, one hundred and fifty feet square, and room for 
Sfleen gangs of saws ; many workshops, a school, and 
churchy a long wharf and timber dock. Frames of ships are 
selected and sent to the sea-board, employing fifty canal- 
boats and several sloops. The steam-boats from Bufialo touch 
here to Chippewa and the Falls ; and the ferry over this 
branch of the Niagara is one hundred rods wide. The is- 
land is alluvial, and is a bed of blue clay forty-seven feet 
deep, far as penetrated, in which are found water- worn stones, 
but no water ; that frxjm the river being used. 

Black Rock is three miles north of Bufi'alo, opposite Wa- 
terloo and Fort Erie, in Canada. The river is three quar- 
ters of a mile wide, and runs with a current of six miles an 
hour, and is twenty feet deep. Ferriage twenty-five cents. 
The water is of a sea-green color, pure, and clear, and 
sprightly, almost sparkling ; and from Black Rock to the Falls 
the banks are eight to ten feet above the river, and a plain ex- 
tends on all sides, and the river is not much below the level of 
the bank between Grand Island and the main, and at the Ton- 
nawanta. The harbor of Black Rock is four thousand five 
hundred and sixty-five yards long from south to north, and 
from eighty-eight to two hundred and twenty yards broad, or 
one hundred and thirty-six acres of surface. It begins in 
the lake at Bird Island, and is continued by a mole of double 
7 



74 ' Fort Schlosser — Navy hlaruL. 

wooden cribs filled in with stone, eighteen feet wide, and Uvo 
thousand nine hundred and fifteen yards to Squaw Island, 
raised from one to four feet above the surface of the river, 
rising gradually towards the north, and is continued across 
the Island one thousand four hundred and thirty yards, to a 
dam one hundred and sixty-five yards long, that connects the 
island with the main, and raises the water in the harbor four 
and a half feet to the lake level, and has a lock to pass ves- 
sels out and in. The depth of water in the harbor, fifteen 
feet; the medial distance from the shore to Squaw Island is 
forty, and the mole uniting the islands, sixteen rods. The 
harbor forms part of the canal that leaves it opposite Bird 
Island, and passes into Buffalo. From the head of the wa- 
ter at the dam, four and a half feet, great water-power is 
available, and here are four flouring mills with twenty-five runs 
of stones, one grist mill, two saw, a stave, carding, antl full- 
ing mill, one iron foundery, and steam engine manufactoryj 
a distillery, and grinding mill, a saw and shingle mill, and 
the unemployed power here is enough to drive one hundred 
mills. There are five stores, five taverns, and three hundred 
and fifty dwellings, and two thousand one hundred inhabitants, 
A team ferry-boat plies across to Waterloo. 

Fort Schlosser was a stockade erected by the British in the 
war of 1756-9, on the east bank of the Niagara River, at the 
mouth of Gill Creek, one mile and a half above the Niagara 
Falls village, and just above the commencement of the rapids. 
This is the upper-landing place for the portage around the 
Falls, to Lewiston at the foot of the mountain ridge, seven 
miles at the lower landing in Niagara River. The ridge itself 
is three hundred and fifty or sixty feet above the river, and 
iwenty-fivc feet higher than the land at Schlosser, and is the 
highest land between the Tonnawanta and Ontario. The fort 
M'as surrendered to the United States by the British in 179G, 
It has recently become notorious for the capture and destruc- 
tion of the steam-boat Caroline, (that was moored at this 
wharf,) by a detachment of British soldiers and seamen from 
Chippewa, that cut her loose, after killing those that resisted, 
towed her out in the current, when she was sucked into the 
rapids, and went over the falls. 

Navy Island contains three hundred acres, is of a shape 
nearly triangular, and is the first island between the grand 
rapids and Grand Island, and being nearest to the Canadian 
shore, and west of the main channel of the Niagara, it is at- 



Niagara Falls. 75 

t^chevl to Upper €aHRda, the boundary line between the Uni- 
ted States and Canada being in the middle of the main chan- 
nel from lake to lake. The recent mihtary occupation of 
this island in the winter and spring of 183S, for a short period 
during- the disturbances in Canada and along the frontier of 
the United States, by a lawless band of outlaws and despera- 
does, has given this small island more celebrity or notoriety 
than it deserves from its fearful position a few hundred yards 
above the grand cataract. Below this, and to Goat Island, and 
from Chippewa over to Schlosser, a distance of two and a half 
miles, any boat venturing impiously to intrude upon the green 
and glassy surface of the alluring stream, will be drawn into 
the rapids, and swept down to inevitable destruction. 

Above the Rapids, the two branches of the Niagara River 
that enclose Grand Island and the other small islets, come 
sweeping down with infinite grandeur, and unite their waters 
for the last time previous to their absorption into the angry 
confusion of the surge and rocks that form the rapids. The mo- 
tion of the immense ocean of waters is grand, is magnificent, 
full of its conscious power, and profound and overwhelming 
influence, advancing with increased impetus to the brink of 
the first shelf of the descent, when the entire breadth of the 
river, about thirteen thousand feet, is received into the rocky 
glen or rapid slope, and sinks from ledge to ledge, arrayed iu 
huge and wild masses to receive the shock of this tumbling 
ocean in its passage over a sloping distance or inclined plane 
of perhaps four thousand feet, and of only fifty -five of actual 
descent, but the impregnable and immovable rocky asperities 
of the underlying rocky foundation are such as to raise, toss, 
scatter, and part this phalanx of waters into an infinite va- 
riety of jetts, cascades, and forms of beauty and sublimity 
ever new, changeable, and wonderful. To the uninitiated and 
unreflecting traveler and spectator, that perhaps approaches 
this scene for the first time, from the south or west, or Irom a 
distance up the great Lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, and 
Superior, over such interminable oceans and inland seas of 
freshwater; and sees the whole moving mass here concen- 
trated, swallowed up in a sudden subsidence or opening, and 
plunging into a tremendous abyss in the solid rock, three 
hundred feet deep, and a mile broad, the sight is overwhelm- 
ing and magnificent. 

" I will remember the works of the Lord. Thou art the 
God that doest wonders. The waters saw thee, God, the 



76 Niagara Falls. 

depths also were troubled, the earth trembled and shook. 
Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and 
thy footsteps are not known." 

The best posilions for vjewinji the rapids are near Chippe- 
wa, on the road down from BufTrtlo, on the west from Erie and 
Waterloo. This is preferable in some respects, and gives the 
first bird's-eye view as the River descends, and the traveler as- 
cends to the hill north of Cliippewa. The table rock is 
another favorable place to get a front and complete panr)ramic 
coup d'ceil, or in walking- along the shore on eitl)er side^ 
or in crossing the bridges to Batli and Iris Islands; but the 
best and most central, is from the upper extremity of Goat 
Island at the tower, &.c. But artists may, and do differ ever* 
in this respect; but to many travelers, the young especially, 
the rapids are the most attractive and delightful part of the 
enjoyments of a fev/ days at Niagara. To the older and 
more mature, the crescent, or Horse Shoe Fall, and the one 
on the United States side may be more gratifying. 

Looking at the rapids from Goat island, directly up stream, 
with the full angle or inclined plane of the rapids before 
us, the endless torrent comes booming and bounding on- 
ward in high curling and dashing waves, that would soon an- 
nihilate all opposition, but the abrupt subsidence of one ledge 
and plain below the preceding one, breaks the continuity of 
the wave, and it darts onward in another wave and plunges 
till it reaches the precipice. The water passing down, be- 
tween the main eastern shore and Bath island, under Por- 
ter's bridge, is clear, and not very deep, but runs with such 
amazing rapidity and violence over the rocky bottom, that in 
crossing the bridge, the whole structure appears to be moving 
bodily towards the precipice with fearful effect; in fact^ 
strong nerves are required in the traverse. 

The Foils on the eastern or Avierican side of Iri.s Island, 
are one hundred and sixty-four feet in the leap, and nine 
hundred feet wide between the Island and the main, and de- 
scend perpendicularly in one clear, glassy sheet, that is par- 
tially broken into foam in its course, and is enveloped and ob- 
scured in mist about one third or one fourth of the height 
from the river below. The Fall between Luna and Iris Island 
is two hundred and forty feet wide of itself, and is included 
in the total estimate of nine hundred feet. 

To appreciate the magnitude and beauty of the Fall near- 
est to the stairs, (six hundred and sixty feet in width,) de- 



Iris or Goat Island. 77 

scend the stairs, and at various stages or steps, pause and 
contemplate the astounding, and terrific, and all-absorbing 
scene; theworldof waters, that never ceases to plunge into the 
riveron the rocky masses, and to glance off its spray and scat- 
tered waters with extreme violence, like small shot, with a 
force that defies all attempts to face it unmoved, or unshrink- 
ing-, or to resist the whirls of air that issue forth with stifling 
effect. When at the bottom of the stairs, and of the slope at 
the edge of the river, again direct the eye upward to the falling 
waters, that from this position are beheld with the fullest 
effect, and also the lofty precipices of rock mantled with the 
moss and hue of ages. 

The bridge extending over the American rapids to Bath 
Island, is four hundred and seventy-six feet long, resting on 
piers or cribs of logs, filled in with heavy masses of stone, 
and the bridge from Bath to Goat Island is two hundred and 
seventy-two feet, made in a similar manner. Bath Island is 
four hundred feet long, and has two acres of surface, and the 
toll-house, (fee twenty-five cents,) and a large paper mill and 
a bathing-house, and is connected by bridges with two islets, 
the Ship and Brig, that brave the fury of the rapids, and help 
to ward off or break its force, in impinging against the Bath 
and mill, and thus the most is made of these mere stepping- 
stones, bridges, and rapids, and after stepping in the toll house, 
and examining the album kept there, and inserting name and 
date, pass over the last bridge to 

Iris, or GooA Island, that is half a mile long by a quarter wide, 
and contains seventy-five acres of land, well timbered with 
beech, oak, maple, &c, mantled with vines and cryptagamous 
shrubs or plants, that have most judiciously and com- 
mendably been preserved by the estimable and worthy pro- 
prietor in their pristine Mildness and native beauty. A neat 
walk covered with gravel has been made near the skirts of 
the island, and vistas introduced to direct the stranger, and 
to exhibit (he whole surrounding scenery to the best possible 
effect. This enchanting little island, enthroned in the midst 
of the furious rapids, and parting aside even the gigantic tide 
of inland waters that presses upon it with threatening vehe- 
mence and resistless power, is now rendered intensely inte- 
resting to the visitant, by the facilities in approaching it over 
the formerly impassable and virgin rapids, that had rarely be- 
fore been attempted by the daring effort of man, but are now 



78 Biddle Stairs. 

safely open to public curiosity and gratification, and the hither- 
to hidden beauties and secluded recesses of this charming spot 
satisfactonlj unfolded. There is not, there cannot be under 
the arch of heaven a more interesting or awful place in all 
creation than this, with its auxiliaries of surpassing glory and 
grandeur, to irradiate, guard, ennoble, and animate the pano- 
rama that here environs the awestruck, astonished, and de- 
lighted traveler. 

Alter making the circuit of the island, and gazing for the 
first time upon the prominent features and wonders of the 
place, in a transient or cursory manner, return to the northern 
face of the precipice, and explore the Biddle Sinirs, but first 
cross the romantic, ticklish bridge to Luna Island, on the 
verge of this centr.d Fall, that, when viewed fiorn the Cana- 
dian shore, at a mile's distance, is almost lost, or appears but 
a mere ribband in comparison with its more imposing 
neighbors, yet it is of the very reputable widtli of two hun- 
dred and forty teet, presenting a snow-white, foaming appear- 
ance, that if it stood alone, like the Montmorency at Quebec, 
would of itself have numerous pilt;rims to lavish their admi- 
ration upon it, but here it ii^, subsidiary and subordinate, yet 
eminently graceful and pleasing. 

The front of I he precipice of Iris Island is of limestone tinge, 
with the venerable hues of time, presenting a uniform facade 
of about a thousand feet facing to the north-west, and separa- 
ting by its intervention the two grand divisions of (he falls, 
the eastern and the western, and it rises to the height of one 
hundred and eiohiy-five feet above the level of the circular 
gulf below the falls. The visit of tiie patriotic Nicholas Bid- 
die, Esq. of Philadelphia, to this place in 1829, resulted in his 
causing this capital stairway to be constructed at his individual 
expense, for the public accommodation, and we hope that it 
will be carefully retained, and repaired, and preserved.* This 
erection facilitated and opened up to pul)lic admiration many 
new points of view, before unapproachable. 

Tiie first flight of steps continues for forty feet, when a six- 
sided or hexagon building, or inclosure of wood, sixty-five 

* Dr. Hiingerford, of Troy, was instantly killed at the falls. In com- 
pany wuh Linrlsey, the guide, lie had descended the Biddle stair-case on 
the Ainericiui side, and was standing near the water, when a mass of rock, 
wei<:hing several tons, fell fron the bnnU above, a height of one hundred 
and fifiy feet, directly upon him. Lindsey suffered a severe contusion 
on his left arm, but was not otherwise injured. 



Terrapin Bridge and Tower. 79 

feet high, containing the spiral, or geometrical, or cork-screw 
staircase of ninety steps, lands the giddy explorer upon the top 
of the debris at the foot of the mural precipice, wiience three 
traces or walks diverge to new points of attraction. One is 
directed to tiie water's edge, eighty feel still farther downward. 
Another to the left, or west, to the great Horse-Shoe or Cres^ 
cent Fall. Another to the right, conducts to the most singular 
novelty of all, the cave, or head quarters of JEolus, the god 
of the winds; and no name could l)e better chosen, or more 
literally correct, for the cavern is fifty feet wide, one iiundred 
high, ant! one hundred and twenty deep, and is directly behind 
the centre fall, and the visiter may safely approach to, and pass 
through It, and emerge at the foot of Lzma Island, and won* 
der at his temerity in risking it; and after looking around 
from this peculiar position, he can even advance, with cautious 
steps and slow, and perchance have a peep behind the watery 
curiain that veils over the rock tiiat sustains the main portion 
of the American fiill; but let him not attempt, in a fool-hardy 
epirit, to risk any further progress towards the American 
stairs, that are yet several hundred feel beyond him, wich a 
crushing weight of water also eternally falling from a height 
of one hundred and sixty-four feet, equal to an ordinary 
church steeple. The noise both at this point and at the cav- 
ern of the wind--*, where it is increa.-ed nnd reverberated with 
ten-fold violence, i? ulterly astounding and overwhelming, 
and is sui geneiif; hnd it is glory enough to any one to have 
been thus far successful; and it' satisfied, let him retrace his 
steps to the foot of the spiral Blddle, and try his luck in a de- 
scent towards the western curtain or crescent fall, that some- 
times permits thj veil of its mysteries also to be penetrated 
lor a siiort distance with similar impunity. Let us now as- 
cend the one hundred and eighty- five feet to the summit of 
the Iris, and find our way westward by the gravelled walk 
to the 

Terrapin Bridge and Tower, the most daring achievement 
to construct, reaching three hundred feet out from the 
Iris Island, including the extension up the stream of the 
rapids, and the Tower of slone, forty-five feet high, done in 
1833, with steps leadmg and winding up to the tup, and from 
the dizzy summit that is thus safely attained, the crowning 
feat of human and almott super-human efforts, undertakings, 
or even imaginings, the traveler that has thus far periled 
his life to gratify his vain and unbounded curiosity, and that 



80 Terrapin Tewer, 

says to himself, what man has done, man can do; and what 
others have here seen, I may also behold, perhaps, in safety, 
will not, perchance, withdraw from the bridge or the tower 
without claiming the full fruition of his gratified curiosity as 
the reward of his hazardous and expensive journeyings. Of 
all appalling and terrible sites for man to place himself upon 
to glut his insatiable, presumptuous desire to draw near to 
the very brink of destruction, and to cast a withering, heart- 
sickening, trembling look into a vortex where no human be- 
ing can enter but to be instantly passed into the abyss of 
eternity, this is the threshold to contemplate, creating hor- 
rible sensations of mingled fear and shrinking back of the 
mind and heart, in thus madly venturing into the presence of 
the power that can annihilate in a moment ail that thus pro- 
fanely intrude into the domains between time and eternity. 

The site of the tower is but four or five hundred feet from 
the deepest portion of the main channel of dark green water, 
that occupies the crescent-shaped part of the Niagara, and is 
also within a few feet of where the rapids are tumbled over 
the precipice in a sea of milk-white foam and richness of 
inimitable perfection and beauty. A very slight illustration 
of this appearance may be cited, by comparing it in a small 
way with the descent of a heavy mass of snow from the roof 
of a tall house in a thawing day, when the mass comes down 
in successive and ponderous, yet feathery-looking pure white 
volumes, with a splash and crash that causes a rebound one 
third of the way back towards the place from whence it came. 
Now the wJiolt facade of the principal fall is two thousand 
one hundred feet, and this is eternally curtained with this 
feathery foam, as before described, except the deep crescent, 
and is falling from a height of one hundred and sixty-four 
and one hundred and lifty-eiglit feet on the west and east re- 
spectively, and the pure majestic central current of the deep 
mysterious crescent, with a width of two hundred feet, ap- 
pears to roll onward like a gigantic wheel, clogged and mov- 
ing with difficulty in a huge snow drift, advancing towards 
the spectator. This grand effect is produced from the fact 
that this ocean fresh water flood does not descend exactly 
perpendicular, but from the angle of inclination of the rapids, 
(above fifty-one feet in four thousand, or about three-quarters 
of a mile,) the huge, lumbering mass of waters forms a 
waving arch of unknown thickness, on whose pure bosom of 
dark green may be traced white spots, or banks of foam, that 



The Crescent or Horse-Shoe Fall. 81 

can be followed by the eye for several seconds, as they descend 
over the snaky undulations of the deep crescent, and are lost 
in I he spray and obscurity of the profound gulf below. 

The ferry or passage over the river to and from the Ameri- 
can stairs and Canadian shore is perfectly safe, and the wa 
ter is much less aaitated than would be expected so near the 
falls; but this is the only safe crossing between the falls and 
Lewiston, six miles below, as the fury of the rapids, eddies, 
and whirlpools below the ferry, render all attempts to cross 
elsewhere impracticable, and madness itself. 

Estimates of the quantity of water discharged vary from 
forty to eighty-five millions of tons the hour, and the depth of 
the pool, at two hundred and fifty feet. A carriage-way is 
now making through the lofty banks on either side to the 
plain above. 

The Crescent or Horse-Shoe Fall, comprising in magnitude 
and volume seven-eighths of the entire body of the Niagara 
River, is reserved to the last in our description, and the cus- 
tomary and nearest approach to it from this shore is by ad- 
vancing to the edge of the celebrated table rock near enough 
to touch the skirt of the rapids that come sweeping around on 
the right hand ; this, however, is in t^act a most perilous stand, 
a mere shelf or thin slab of limestone rock but two or three 
feet in thickness at its extremity, where it overarches out forty 
feet beyond the general line of the rock t)eneath, and fissures 
already indicate that a speedy disruption of this part of the 
rock will inevitably occur ; but such is the heedlessness yf 
man, and the thoughtlessness and intrepidity of the ladies, 
that this is always the flirting-place where visiters take their 
initiation into the wonders of the raging and conflicting ele- 
ments beneath. 

Perhaps as good a view with a better fore-ground may be 
obtained, combining perfect safety also, by resorting a few 
rods north beyond the stairs, receding more from the brink. 
The stairs near by, like the Biddle, are spiral, winding round 
a tall pine centre that reaches to the top of the debris of rocks 
that have fallen from the arch above, from whence a path 
leads along to the right, at the foot of the precipice, with 
over-hanging arch of rock forming a complete semi-vault, 
open on the left to the panorama of the entire chasm and its 
body of billowy ocean floods. 

, To pass behind the falls to termination rock, visiters apply 
at the museum or shanty near the stairs to the keeper, who 



82 The passage behind the Falls — Albany. 

must have his regular fees, and will furnish suitable dresses 
and a guide that will descend with and conduct the adven- 
turous explorer, with many cautions as to his conduct, step by 
step, taking hold of his hand, or holding by a narrow ledge 
of slate rock, and with a very slimy, eel-covered, precarious, 
slippery footing; and as the falling body of water is neared, 
the breath is with difficulty preserved from the whirls of air 
and spray that issue forth from the cavern, blinding and 
drenching at the same time; but, once in for it, onward is the 
word, groping in uncertainty and obscurity for one hundred 
and fifty-three feet, till you can proceed no farther, a projecting 
rock completely barring all further progress, when the guide 
puts his mouth close to your ear, and says " look up ;" the eye 
is cast up to see the thick vault of waters that comes like a 
deluge, near enough to allow a play or space of a few feet 
between the vast body of water and the solid rock, when it 
becomes requisite to turn about on a pivot, as it were, and re- 
turn, feeling and groping along by the same path you came, 
and after emerging into full light and freedom, and ascending 
the stairs and re-dressing, &c. the guide gives you the famous 
certificate of your having gone to the termination rock, and 
that affair is finished. 



Orand Route by the Erie Canal froui 
Albany to Biifialo. 

Albany, the present seat of the state government, was first 
settled in 1612 to 1614, after Henry Hudson had made his ex- 
ploration in 1609, up as far as the Mohawk river, in search of a 
passage to the East Indies, for the Dutch company at Amster- 
dam, it was, at that period, a bold and hazardous attempt to 
plant a colony of Europeans even on the coast of the Atlantic, 
and still more such a distancein the interior; but the advantages 
that it presented for trading with the aborigines for furs and 
peltries, in this their strong hold, outbalanced and quieted all 
objections and fears in the view of enormous gains to be rea- 
lized by the traffic that was, for fifty years or more, carried on 
by the company as a close monopoly ; indeed, for a long time 
no adventurer from the city of New Amsterdam, now New- 
Vork, was permitted to ascend the Hudson River for traffic, 
unless licensed specially for that purpose. 



Albany, 83 

In 1664, the transfer of the colony to the English ensued, 
and the name of this spot was changed from New Orange to 
Albany, after the Duke of York and Albany, and a charter 
granted by the English Governor Dongan, defining the boun- 
daries of the settlement, viz. one mile front on the Hudson, 
and extending l)ack in a northwest direction, 13 to 14 miles, 
nearly over to the Mohawk River ; a very narrow and yet libe- 
ral grant. The city is now divided into five Wards, and has a 
Mayor, ten Aldermen and Assistants. It is in north latitude 
42° 39' — and from the level of the river, has a front of a mile 
and three-quarters of compactly built spacious warehouses 
and dwellings, and extending west several blocks to Market- 
street, the main artery of the city from north to south, from 
which it rises gradually to Pearl through the central State- 
street to the termination at the public square and the Capitol, 
at an elevation of 150 feet, and at the western bounds of the 
summit level it attains 67 feet more, in all about 217 feet, thus 
giving the city, on approaching it by river, or from the east 
shore, a very enticing appearance, as it is presented on a tole- 
rably steep acclivity that recedes from the river towards the 
west, and discloses its prominent edifices to the utmost ad- 
vantage. 

There are 100 streets, and a population by present estimate 
of 35,000— besides a fluctuating mass that arrive and de- 
part daily by steam, stage, and cars, of several hundreds that 
are concentrated here as a focus — here are 21 churches, 
12 hotels, 6 banks, total capital .^2,150,000 — 4 Insurance Com- 
panies, 14 charitable societies for various nations, and an Asy- 
lum, and 2 daily, 2 half weekly, 7 weekly, and 3 monthly 
papers — a County and the State Medical Society, Agricultural 
and Horticultural Society — an Apprentices' Library, a very 
superior Reading-room for young men, free to strangers, 
with lectures twice a week, and a debating society — the Athe- 
neum and a Library of ten thousand volumes. The Albany 
Academy for Females in Pearl north of State-street, is a build- 
ing that pleases the eye by its beautiful white portico, and is 
said to be in high reputation. The Albany Academy, on the 
north side of the public square, is an expensive edifice of the 
reddish or brown sandstone, with a front of 90 feet, and three 
stories high, that cost near a hundred thousand dollars — it has 
Protessors of the Latin and Greek, and of Mathematics and 
Natural Philosophy, &nd of Modern Languages — and there 
are 4 tutors. 



S4 Public Buildings t/i Albany > 

The Albany Institute has its apartments in the Academy, a 
library of 2000 volumes, and ten thousand specimens in its 
museum in geology, mineralogy, botany, coins, and engrav- 
ing's. There are nine district schools, and seven thousand 
children instructed. 

Slanwix Hall, built of granite, with a dome, and the Museum 
of white marble, at the corner of State and Market-streets, 
and the splendid City Hall, also of white marble, and with a 
gilded dome of unique appearance, on the east side of the 
public square, are all fine edifices, as is the Slate House 
jiear by. 

The Capitol, where the State Legislature convene, and the 
rooms of the Chancellor and Supreme Court are held and the 
State Library is contained, and other places of public business, 
occupies the most prominent situation in the city, at the head 
of State-street, and has a portico of the ionic order. There 
are portraits and busts in this edifice and in the City Hall, 
The Capitol is one hundred and fifteen feet long, ninety broad, 
and fifty high, and from its steps, or summit, is a most enchant- 
ino;view of the Hudson River, and city, &c. 

There are three Academies for females, and a classical 
school. The Baptist Church in Pearl and the Dutch in Bea- 
ver and Hudson-streets are entitled to notice as neat and taste- 
ful edifices. There are Bil)le, Prayer Book, and Tract and 
Musical Societies, and a Theatre. The public square in 
front of the Capitol is well laid out, and has a costly iron 
railing. 

The six or eight breweries, of noted excellence, produce to 
the value of half a million a year. Six iron works, $226,000. 
Oil cloth, rope, cabinet, hollow and stone ware, snuff, tobacco, 
Siats, carriages, sleighs, harness, plated and silver ware, coach 
Jace, looking-glasses, types, niorocco, sperm candles, &c. are 
all manufactured here. 

A ride to Troy, Lansingburg, Waterford, Niskayuna, or the 
Shaker Settlement, six miles, and to the Cahoes Falls, on the 
Mohawk, and along the canal and double locks, and excava- 
tions, and dams, and acqueducts, will well repay the transient 
visiter, and occupy a day most agreeably. Stages ply to Troy 
on the hard macadamized road every half hour, fare 12^ cents. 
A view of the great avalanche that overwhelmed the inhabi- 
tants at the base of the hiil, or rather to see the place it occu- 
pied at Troy, is of itself worth a visit, as well as tho city 
nself, and its celebrated female school. Cars ply to Schenee- 



Mineral Spring— the Basin— Erte Canal. 85 

tady four times daily, at eight, ten, three, and five — a ferry to 
Bath and to Greenbush — but the contemplated tunnel under 
the Hudson is not yet made. 

CoVocK's Mineral Spring, six hundred and seventeen feet 
deep, gives, on analysis, muriate and carbonate of soda, car- 
bonates of lime, and magnesia, and iron, and acid, similar to 
the water of the Congress Spring at Saratoga. The spring, 
with the garden, &c. is worth a visit. 



Tlie £]ric CuBial Basln^ 

containing an area of thirty-two acres in the Hudson 
River, formed by the pier, eighty feet wide, and four thou- 
sand three hundred feet long, extending parallel with the 
shore to protect the entrance and exit of canal-boats at the 
lock, and afford facilities for reception and discharge of pro- 
duce and merchandise in safety into the adjoining warehouses 
and sloops, is a work of great utility and of small expense, it 
having cost but ^130,000, and is very profitable to the proprie- 
tors. There are many steam.-boats for carrying passengers 
between this city and New- York, that leave at seven in the 
morning and five in the afternoon, daily — others also to Troy, 
besides tow-boats. 

In the spacious reservoir or basin, the grand portal or in- 
troduction to the Erie and Champlain canals, may usually be 
seen, in the business season, an assemblage of boats from the 
numerous towns and villages that border on the canals and the 
small interior lakes that are connected therewith, and inter- 
mingled with the river and coasting craft ; here are motley 
groupes of freshwater and saltwater sailors and boatmerij 
besides the crews of the steamers that are usually ranged out- 
side of the pier, and throngs of strangers and passengers 
hurrying to and fro across the bridges that lead from the city 
to the pier, amid carts and carriages, barrows and vehicles of 
all kinds, urging onward to extricate from the confused melee 
— this is peculiarly the case on (he departure or arrival of the 
larger class of steamboats, v/hen crowded by their several 
hundreds of passengers. 

The tedious mode of traveling by canal between Albany, 

Schenectady, and Utica, has long since been supplanted by the 

rail-roads with their flying cars, as detailed at page 45 ; yet it 

may still be desired by some to trace the method adopted in 

8 



86 Erie Canal — the Pair ooti — Gibbons viHe. 

1825 by travelers, and uaed for several years, to examine this 
interesting portion of the canal, up the Hudson and brancb- 
incr off to the west in tlie valley of the Mohawk. 

By departing from Albany, at an early hour in the morning, 
in one of the line boats bound for the west, though several 
hours are required to pass the twenty-eight and a half miles, 
and twenty-four locks, to Schenectady, yet to those that can 
spare the requi«ite time, and that are fond of this quiet, easy, 
safe mode of traveling, there is much to be seen in the distance 
to reward the curious stranger; and it can be enjoyed without 
fatigue, and at a trifling expense. 

Passing out of the basin, by the first lock of eleven or 
twelve feet rise, a long reach or level of seven miles, with 
only one lock, is entered upon, that is parallel with, and but 
a few rods from the Hudson River on the east, and the beautiful 
garden and grounds of the Patroon, so called, (or Patron, or 
great land owner,) a descendant of the original Dutch patentee 
of the large manor of Rensselaerwyck, a very extensive tract 
on both sides of the Hudson, this being near the central point 
of the grant of twenty-four miles north and south on the 
river, and forty-two miles east and west, (one thousand and 
eight square miles, or six hundred and forty-six thousand one 
hundred and twenty-eight acres,) bounded by Massachusetts 
on the east, and by Schoharie county on the west, and by 
Schenectady, Saratoga, and part of Rensselaer counties on 
the north, and by Columbia and Greene counties on the south. 
This immense landed estate, except the city of Albany and 
other tracts owned by individuals, is the undoubted and clear- 
ly established and recognized property of the Van Rensselaer 
family, derived by their ancestor, Killian Van Rensselaer, 
that by permission of the Dutch Government in 1630, 1631, 
1637, 1648, and 1649, purchased of the Indians ; and these pur- 
chases were fully confirmed in 1641 by the government of 
Holland, and by that of England under Governor Dongan in 
1685, on the 4th of March. The last of the Patroons, Ste- 
phen Van Rensselaer, died 1839, 26th January, at 4 P. M., the 
moment when the great hurricane was raging at New-York, 
and on the sea-board. The estate, that has been estimated 
at a value of several millions of dollars, will now be divided 
among the large family and heirs of the late Patroon. 

At the termination of the first reach before stated, we are 
at or near fVest l^roy^ or Gibbonsville, opposite to the city of 
Troit, on the east side of the Hudson. Here are five hundred 



U. 8. Arsenal— Erie Canal — Cahoes Falls. 87 

and twenty dwellings, and three thousand five hundred inhabi- 
tants — the"^ Bank of Watervliet, capita! $150,000 — manufacto- 
ries of various kinds, one of India rubber — side locks lead to 
the river, and a bridge to Tibbett's Island. The surplus 
water from the adjoining canal yields all the power required 
for mechanical operations, and may in some measure be con- 
sidered as a suburb of Troy, and with that is identified in its 
growth and prosperity. 

The United States Arsenal covers a large space, with the 
canal passing in close contiguity ; here are usually large stores 
of arms and munitions of war, skillfully and artfully arranged 
in neat brick or stone buildings, and some relics of the Revo- 
lutionary war are here to be seen, in cannon taken at Saratoga 
and Yorktown, and others of brass, of antique form, present- 
ed by the king of France. 

Two locks, of eleven feet lift each, next conduct to a level 
of a mile or two that brings us to the junction of the Erie 
with the Champlain Canal, (leading north to Whitehall, sixty- 
three and a half miles; see page 44,) and to the steps, or 
ridges, tliat are surmounted by nine locks, of eight feet lift 
each, that are formed of the white marble of Westchester 
county, and are ninety by fifteen feet in the chamber, as are 
all the original locks ; the boats are five minutes in getting 
through each lock, and the canal begins here to incline gradu- 
ally to the north-west, and as it rises above the Hudson, there 
is a charming panoramic view of the hills back of Troy and 
Lansingburg, and of the low grounds and islands in the delta 
of the Mohawk. 

The next three locks, of eight feet eight each, or twenty-six 
feet, is near the bridge that conducts, or connects, the road 
over the Mohawk to VVaterford, — and from the bridge is a 
glimpse of the falls above and the dam that raises the river 
below, to enable the boats that are bound north to cross above 
the dam in the slack water, though at considerable hazard. 
The next two locks rise nine feet each, and in half a mile we 
encounter, for six hundred feet, the first deep cutting, viz. 
twenty-six feet, in transition argellite, and arrive by the side 
of the 

Cahoes Falls — a Dutch church and a farming settlement, the 
Boght or Cove; and the manufacturing village of the Cahoes 
company is here located, and contains a factory for cotton and 
woolen, and one for hosiery of cotton, linen, and woolen, on 
newly invented looms, one for edge tools, a mill for turning- 



88 Cahoes Falls — Wal Hoix Gap. 

lathes, an iron foundery, a carpet factory, an Episcopal church, 
two taverns, and shops, and stores, and sixty dwellings. The 
falls are in full view of the village and of the canal, and have 
sevenly-eight feet descent. Above the cataract, the left or 
north bank has an elevation of one hundred feet, and below 
it has one hundred and seventy feet of a slaty lead-colored 
rocU, distorted and irregular in its outline. On the right or 
south shore above the falls the bank is low, but below it, eighty 
to ninety feet high. In some seasons, the bed of the Mohawk 
below the Cahoes Fall can be examined and walked over close 
to the foot of the cataract, though rough and full of holes and 
projections of the sharp angles and points of the slaty rock ; 
at other times the whole face of the jagged rock, and of the 
bed below, is one tremendous torrent nine hundred feet wide, 
white with foam, presenting a spectacle of great sublimity. 

A canal near two miles long, that leads out any desirable 
portion of the waters of the Mohawk, a half mile above the 
falls, to the various mills below, has a head and fall of one 
hundred and twenty kei, its channel in the first part being 
through slate rock, between the river and the Erie Canf»J, and 
then by a tunnel under the state canal to the west side, whence 
it is distributed as wanted, yielding six or seven successive 
falls of eighteen or twenty feet. The capital of the company, 
as incorporated, is half a million of dollars. 

In halt a mile onward, above the Cahoes, we meet four 
locks, with a rise of eight feet each, and a series of mills ad- 
jacent, and in two and a half miles onward we reach the Loiver 
Aqueduct over the Mohawk Biver, of eleven hundred and 
twenty-eight feet in length, resting on twenty-si.x piers and 
abutments of stone, the trunk that contains the water being 
of wood. This transfers the canal to the north side of the 
Mohawk River, in the town of Half Moon, Saratoga county, 
along the base of the JVut Hoix ridge, for over two mile.s, to 
the famous gap of that name, that for forty rods runs through 
high walls of grav wacke slate. 

Until this passage was discovered and determined upon, 
when the engmeers were exploring the valley of the Mohawk 
for the best line to adopt, they were almost at a nonplus, 
when they beheld the difficulties and asperities of this vicinity 
on the south shore of the river, that is very forbidding in its 
aspect, being rock-bound anfl |)recipitous, and it was then 
that they determined to overcome and avoid all difficulties by 
carrying the canal twice across the river. The ravine was 



Wat Hoi X Rapids — Union College. 89 

eighty feet wide at the east and fifteen at the west, expanding 
in the middle as if to form a natural basin, with walls of solid 
rock. Beyond tiiis for 80 rods, the JVat Hoix rapids in the 
Mohawk have a descent of ten feet, ruffling the surface of 
the water, and called by the Indians the While Horse, or the 
Evil Spirit. On the north the canal is bounded by a precipice 
of one hundred and forty-six feet, that in many places over- 
hangs the canal, and is quite appalling to the sight. On the 
south is the river washino;- the bank of the canal, that is formed 
in a solid and masterly style. 

Thence it is two miles to Fort's ferry on the old road from 
Albany to Ballston Spa, and one mile to the next lock of seven 
feet rise, and one mile to Vischer's ferry. One and a half 
miles bring- us to a deep rock excavation, of thirty-two feet 
in the solid rock as before. The canal, for a considerable 
distance in the vicinity of Wat Hoix, i, on the edge of the 
river, and a protecting solid wall of stone, smooth and at a 
low depressed angle, rises from the water's edge as the rapid 
current sweeps towards the falls. 

The next two miles contain two locks, of nine feet rise 
each, and a guard lock and feeder of half a mile from the 
Mohawk, and a hiiih bank of one hundred and thirty feet, — 
and in two miles farther we arrive at the Upper Aqueduct 
over the Mohawk, where the canal again recrosses to the 
south bank, seven hundred and forty-eight feet in extent, on 
sixteen piers of limestone, tv/enty-five feet above the river, 
the trunk of the canal of wood, as on the other. The coup 
d'oeil here is very ime. Here are also three locks, of seven 
feet lift each, and in a short distance the old Alexander bridge, 
and mills, on the old Albany and Ballston road. The rock 
of gray wacke slate is in the county of Schenectady. Three 
miles farther we pass in fiont of Union College, and soon are 
in Schenectady. The view over the vale on entering is pleas- 
ing in the highest degree. The two edifices of the college are 
each two hundred feet long, and four stories in height, and 
six more are requisite to complete the plan. $300,000 have 
been bestowed by the State, or rather permitted to be raised by 
lottery, for the i)enefit of this literary institution, but causing- 
the most injury to society of any method that could be adopt- 
ed to raise funds. There is a President, (Dr. Nott,) seven 
professors, a teacher of French and Spanish, and two hundred 
and eighty-five students. Annual expense, board in the hall, 
$98, fuel and light $S, washing $6. There are three terms 



90 Schenectady— Erie Canal, 

in the year, and the expenses of each are pnyahle in advance. 
The first settlement of this town was in 1620, hy a colony of 
Dutch, to engaije in the fur trade, in despite of the one at 
Alhany ; and this continued peaceably until 1661, v.hen Arent 
Van Corlaer, and others, received a grant fron) the govern- 
ment on extinguishing the Indian title, and in 1664 surveys 
were made, and an inroad was effected by the Canadian 
French, but they lott their way and were near perishing from 
fatigue and famine; but Van Corlaer generously enabled them 
to return in peace, unmolested. In relurn for this generous 
and kind treatment, twenty-six years subsequently, namely, 
in 1690, the town, then composed of sixty-three houses and a 
church, was burned by a party of French and Indians, in the 
night of 8lh February, killing and capturing most of the 
inhabitants; and this was repeated in 1748, and seventy 
citizens slain. A fire in IS 19, on 17ih iNovember, destroyed 
one hundred and seventy buddings, but within a few years 
past the city has l)ceri prosperous, Irom the rail-road and canal 
that pass through it. 

The city is on twenty streets, has nine places of public 
v/orship, two academies, a Lancaster and several select and 
district schools, six newspapers, two banks, capital ;$385,000, 
an insurance company of ^lOO.tlOO, twelve hundred houses, 
and about six thousand inhubitajits, — an iron and a brass 
foundery, carpet, satin, and tobacco factory, a paper mill, &c. 
A covered bridge extemls over the river one thousand feet. 
The rail-road bridge also runs north over the flats and cause- 
way for three-fourths of a mile; thence the road to Ballston 
turns northeast tour miles, thence northerly along the lake, 
entering the village, and crossing' the Kynderossera by a 
good bridge, and thence to Saratoga — whole distance from 
Schenectady twenty-one and a half miles, nearly level, the 
greatest variation being only sixteen feet to a mile, the rails 
of wood, with iron plates, and the cost only $300,000, with 
cars, engines &c. 

The canal passenger-boats leave from this place at half past 
seven in the morning and half past six in the evening, and 
are eighteen to twenty hours to Utica. Price for the eighty 
miles, four cents per mile including meals. The next four 
miles, across the luxuriant flats of the Mohawk, takes us 
skirting along the base of the southern ridge to Rotterdam, 
passing two locks, of eight feet lift each. There are nine 
islands in the river, from two to one hundred and twenty acres, 



Flint Hill — Schoharie Creek. 91 

that the Blnnekill cuts ofT from the main. The villag'e has 
two Dutch churches, one cotton factory of two Ihousand 
spindles, fifty looms that make four hundred thousand yards 
of goods and thirty thousand pounds of yarn annually, one 
carpet factory, two carding and cloth-dressing mills, four grist 
mills of three runs, and one iron casting furnace, and twenty- 
five dwellings. In a mile and three-quarters we come to the 
aqueduct over the PtuUekill, that has a waterfall of ahout eighty 
feet in ten rods, with a perpendicular pitch of fitly feet, a vein 
of lead ore in a gangue of slate three quarters of a mile above 
the falls, that are a mile from the river. Thence in three and 
a quarter miles is another lock of eight feet, and in two and 
a quarter miles we are at the limit of the county of Schenec- 
tady, and enter upon Montgomery, and in one mile pass Flijit 
Hill, a branch of the Catskill that is here pierced by the 
Mohawk, and on the north connects with the range that ex- 
tend toward the sources of the Hudson River ; the rock here is 
sandstone. 

Three and a half miles are two locks, of eight feet rise each, 
and an aqueduct, and in three miles we arrive at the bridge 
over the Mohaw4c to Amsterdam, (see index and page 47.) 
The population here is of a mixed character, being descend- 
ants from Dutch, Germans, Irish, Scotch, &lc. Minaville, or 
Yankee Street, four miles south of the canal on the Chucta- 
nunda Creek, has a church of Presbyterians, a tavern, two 
stores, and forty dwellings. Fori Jackson has three stores, 
two taverns, and twenty dwellings. 

An aqueduct passes over the Chuctanunda Creek, that rises 
twelve miles south in the high region around Duanesburg 
and drives twenty mills. Its name is purely Indian, and means 
stony bottom. Another creek of the same name enters into 
the Mohawk on the opposite side of the river. 

In four miles we pass* two locks, one of eight and the other 
of four feet lift, and on the site of the eastern guard lock former- 
ly stood Queen Anne's chapel and the old Mohawk castle. 
The Indians granted a tract of land for the use of the Episco- 
pal missionary at this church, and with their beloved teacher 
fled to Cfanada during the revolutionary war, where he be- 
catne a bishop, and the Indians sent back for their church bell. 

Schoharie Creek, fifty miles from Albany, — though called a 
creek it is ten rods wide, and at times would pass for a respec- 
table stream, being subject to great and sudden freshets from 
the Catskill mountain region, where it has its origin seventy 



92 BalVs Cavt—^rte Canal. 

miles south, — is rapid in its course, and is bordered by lofty 
hills and precipices, and famous for its drift ox fiood wood, and 
that is the indication of the Indian name. It is the largest 
tributary of the iVlohawk, and there are rich flats on its bor- 
ders, one to two rniles wide in Middleburgh, and Schoharie, ihe 
county seat, a small village, a court-house of stone, three 
stories high, county clerk's office, a Lutheran and a Dutch 
church, two academies, one hundred and twenty dwellings, 
five stores, three taverns, five mills ; the old stone church 
served as a fortress when Brandt, and Butler, and Johnson 
attacked in the war of the revolution; and four miles north- 
east is BaWs cave, two hundred feet in depth, with numerous 
apartments, a lake thirty feet deep and half a mile long, an 
amphitheatre one hundred feet in diameter and one hundred 
high, the floor descending on all sides to the centre, the roof 
horizontal, its walls rich in stalactetic decoration. The en- 
trance to this cavern is hy a perpendicular descent of seventy- 
five feet, and is eflecled by ropes. 

Fort Hunter, east side of the creek. The passage of the 
canal boats over the surface of the river just above the dam 
of twenty feet, is effected by means of a rope, or cable, worked 
by horses and wound round a drum, or cylinder, on the shore. 
If the rope should give way, the boat and passengers must go 
over the dam — but this seldom happens. The boat then en- 
ters a lock of six feet rise, on the west side of the Schoharie, 
and in two miles arrives at the canal house, of singular form, 
in Smithtown, or Glen, and to Isherkill aqueduct, and Aries- 
kill dam and guard locks, and in two and a half miles lo 
another lock of seven feet rise, nearly opposite Caughnawaoa 
and Johnstown. (See index, and page 48.) 

In six miles we cross the little aqueduct and basin opposite 
the Little Nose, and in one mile to Avthom/s Nose, in the 
township of Root, and here we first encounter the primitive 
or gneiss rock in this valley. In the cHflfs near the river is a 
cave that is said to penetrate several hundred feet into the 
bowels of the mountain, with the walls encrusted in the usual 
manner. 

Sprakcr's basin, dam, and guard lock is two and ft quarter 
miles beyond the nose, and ia two and three-quarter miles is 
anoliier lock of six feet rise, when we are at Canajoharie on 
the creek of that name, with a guard lock and a bndfre across 
the Mohawk to Palatine. (See index and page 48.) 

The Canajoharie, or Bowman Creek, rises in the ridge of 



Brie Canal, SfC. 93 

land that separates the valley of the Mohawk from the extreme 
head waters of the Susquehanna River, and in the valley south 
of this ridge, that may perhaps be a thousand feet above the 
river, is cradled the town of Cherry Valley and the beautiful 
Otsego Lake, that, at its outlet at Cooperstown, empties its 
pellucid waters into the charming- valley of the Susquehannah, 
that meanders for several hundred miles in a southerly direc- 
tion to reach the Chesapeake, and yet is only separated from 
the Mohawk by a roof, or slope, of mountainous land about 
ten miles broad. The fall of the Canajoharie Creek in its 
course of twenty miles is eight hundred feet or more. Its 
valley is overlooked with the greatest delight from the ridge 
just mentioned, east of Cherry Valley, and presents one of 
the most extensive and splendid landscapes in the State. 

The rail-road from this to Catskill, seventy miles in a south- 
east direction, will pursue the base of the north-east face of 
the ridge. This village is a place of some trade, and has a 
factory for making cotton and woolen goods, a Dutch church, 
an academy, a library, two newspapers, four taverns, three 
distilleries, two flour and two saiv-mills, seven stores, one 
hundred dwellings. 

Canajoharie Centre, on the head of Bowman's Creek, has a 
Presbyterian church and a few dwellings, and here is the 
Central Jisyluvi for the deaf and dumb. 

In following our course for three and a half miles opposite 
to Stone Arabia (four miles in the interior, on the north bank) 
we meet with a lock of seven feet rise, and the guard lock on 
the Olsquaga Creek, in the town of Minden, and Fort Plain 
village. The Otsquaga Creek gushes from three springs, and 
has at its source power to drive three mills, is highly charged 
with calcareous matter, and has formed in its dell, tulfa and 
petrifactions, and after a ra{)id descent to the north-east, 
throuoh Minden, falls into the Mohawk at Fort Plain. 

Minden townsiiip has a front of eight miles alongthe river, 
a surface most agreeably undulated with ridges and hills of a 
motlerate height, and pleasant and fertile valleys, and fine 
alluvial tracts along the Mohaw k and Otsquaga. It was early 
Settled by Germans, and abounds in local names, viz. Dutch 
Town or the Dorf in the north. Fort Plain in the north-east, 
Gilspnberg in the centre, and Ford's Bath in the west, and 
the Bush in the south; there are two Dutch churches, and 
seven sav.' mills, and a fulling mill. 

In three miles onward, a feeder comes in from the river 



91 Valley of the Mohawk. 

above the dam, and a lock of ei^ht feet rise, and the dam and 
guard-lock opposite St. Johnsville in Oppenheim, and in two 
miles farther at Crous' is a lock of eight feet, and one and a 
half miles more we are opposite the mouth of East Canada 
Creek, and the Gulf bridge, on the rail-road, of one arch of one 
hundred and sixty feet span, elevated sixty feet above the 
water, and in two miles we enter another lock of eight feet 
rise, in the township of Danube. 

A Mohawk castle and a church for the Indians, under the 
patronage of the English, formerly stood at the mouth of the 
Noivadaga Creek, that, with its dam, and guard locks, and 
towpath of four hundred feet, is passed in a mile, and in two 
more the grave of General Herkimer, his brick house being 
seen on elevated ground : — he was slain in the Oriskany 
battle. 

We are now drawing near to the most interesting portion 
of the Mohawk valley, the passage of the river through the 
rocky gulf or barrier. The detile is two miles long with an 
average breadth of six hundred yards, bordered by rocky and 
•wood-clad hills of four hundred feet in height; the rocks are 
granite gneiss and hornblend, with calciferous sand rock 
overlaid by transition limestone. 

The Little Falls of the Mohawk are so termed in contrast 
to the greater descent of the river at the Cahoes below, and 
this is one of those distinguished geographical positions that 
is presented in a far less picturesque form at the Wind Gap 
and Water Gap on the Delaware ; at various places on the 
Susquehannah ; at the union of the Shenandoah and Potomac 
in Virginia; and the passage of the Hudson through the 
highlands of New-York; though the volume of water in the 
places referred to may be vastly superior, and the natural 
outlines on a more magnificent scale ; yet the combination of 
natural objects, with those of artificial creation by the labor 
and ingenuity of man, that are here brought into direct asso- 
ciation and contrast, infinitely surpasses (hat of any otiier 
position in the United States. Here are brought into juxta- 
position, side by side, the Erie Canal with its i^est of locks, 
and the much admired aqueduct and road bridge immediately 
over the main chute of tlie Mohawk; the line of road also 
adjoining the canal on that side; then the river and the re- 
mains of the old flumes and locks of the original canal com- 
pany ; then the new line of rail-road, and the expensive rock 
excavations and embankments, and the old turnpike road on 



LilUe Falls— Erie Ca?ial. 95 

^he north side, hemmed in by perpendicular rocks that are 
ahnost grazed by the cars, — these arrest the attention of the 
admiring and wondering traveler, and if examination is made 
into the geological signs and marks that nature has implanted 
in indelible characters, so that he that flies may see, and he 
that "runs may read,'' the student of natural science, and 
others that have even slightly attended to such subjects, must 
be impressed with the renjarkable and striking features of the 
entire panorama. 

The descent of the river in three-quarters of a mile is forty- 
two feet, the marble aqueduct is two hundred and fourteen 
feet long and sixteen wide, with walls fourteen feet high and 
four broad, upheld by one arch of seventy and two others of 
fifty feet span each, together with the abutments ; a balus- 
trade on the parapet renders it secure for passengers that may 
devote a s^hort time to its examination. The adjacent village 
has a fVictory for making cotton and woolen goods, two fur- 
naces for casting iron, two grist, two saw, two paper-mills, 
two tanneries, two machine-shops, one trip-hammer, one card- 
ing and dressing mill, four churches, two academies, a bank, 
capital of {§5200,000, eleven lawyers, five physicians, two print- 
ing offices and papers, three hundred and fifty stone dwell- 
ings, that receive a supply of water in pipes from an elevated 
spring three hundred feet higher than the settlement. The 
land, or rock, formerly was held for many years by a Mr. 
Ellis, an Englishman, disinclined to improve or sell until 
recently. It has been purchased by a gentleman of New- 
York, R. Ward. It is seventy-nine miles from Albany, twenty 
from Utica. 

There are five locks within a mile, of eight feet lift each, 
and in the river and on the bank of the canal are huge rocky 
masses and pillars of grotesque water-worn forms, and for a 
long distance near here the canal is supported by a wall of 
masonry that encroaches boldly on the bed of the river, and 
the deck of the canal boat affords an excellent view, in pa^^sing 
through the locks of this famous mountain gorge, that at 
first was beheld by the canal contractors with dismay, from 
the difficulties that were anticipated at this spot in (orming a 
trench or line in such a knotty, contracted glen, and two or 
three years were allowed by the canal commissioners, and 
supposed to be necessary for tho excavation and construction ; 
but it was effected in three months by some unexpected facili- 
ties, or some new wholesale method of blasting, by which 



% Erie Canal — Mohawk Village— Herkimer. 

masses of eighty to one hundred tons were thrown out at a 
lime by a profuse quantity of gunpowder— the explosions 
rent asunder the face of the mountain, and shook the country 
for miles around like an earthquake. 

After passing through the second of the locks, we leave the 
ravine, and also the gneiss rock, and the last seen for some 
time as we go west, then pass in two and a half miles three 
locks, of eight feet lift each, and in four and a half miles, two 
more locks at the German Flats, one of eight and one of nine 
feet rise, near a stone church used as a fortress, and Fort 
Herkimer, and in one mile we arrive opposite the mouth of 
Wesl Canada Creek, on the north side of the Mohawk, that 
comes down the Trenton Fall?, (see index, p. 53.) The flats 
are celebrated for their fertility, but are not superior to many 
regions farther west, and have lost their exclusive character, 
since the western States of the Union have become more fa- 
miliarly known. 

A canal has been cut around the Woif rift in the Mohawk, 
one and a half miles in length, giving water power. Mohawk, 
a village of thirty dwellings, and a few stores, is one mile 
south, and a post-office called Paine's Hollow. A bridge here 
leads over to Herkimer, three-quarters of a mile north, that 
has a neat Dutch and Methodist church, and a brick court- 
house, and stone jail, and county clerk's office, one hundred 
and twenty dwellings, five taverns and stores, and a hydraulic 
company, that have, at the expense of forty thousand dollars, 
cut a canal, and constructed extensive works. 

After passing in a short distance through an extensive dug 
way in a high hill of clay and sand, is another bridge, a lock 
of eight feet rise, and another of the same at Fulmer's Creek 
aqueduct, and in one and a half railes we pass Steel's Creek 
aciueduct and feeder, and in one and a quarter miles, two locks, 
of eight feet rise each, and in three-quarters of a mile, the 
aqueciuct over Myer's Creek, and are at Frankfort, a village 
of fifty dwellings, two churches, a Presbyterian and Baptist, 
uvo taverns, seven stores, a furnace that makes iron ware to 
the value of thirty thousand dollars a year, and a factory for 
cotton and woollen goods and machinery. The rail-road is 
here on the south side of the Mohawk to Utica. 

The long level of sixty-nine and a half miles without a 
lock, here commences, and extends westward through Utica, 
Whitestown, Rome, Verona, Lenox, Sullivan, Manlius, to 
Ij)di, near Syracuse. This portion of the canal was the 



Uttca— Schenectady. 97 

easiest, and the first made. It is the longest canal level known, 
and is a remarkable feature in the geography of the country, 
as it follows a prolonged extent of table land from the upper 
waters of the Mohawk, along the south of the Oneida Lake, 
towards the Onondaga River and Lake Ontario. 

In six miles we pass Ferguson's Creek aqueduct, and in 
one mile Clark's Creek aqueduct on four arches, and in two 
miles we are at Utica. This city has a population of twelve 
thousand, sixteen places of public worship of all the sects, 
four academies or high schools, forty-three schools, a Lyceum, 
and Medical Society, and Mechanical Association, with lec- 
tures, models, &c. a library, and another for apprentices, and 
also the Young Men's Association, reading and news-room, 
and library, with debates, and lectures on literary and scien- 
tific subjects. Their room, &c. open to all stjTang^ers. A mu- 
seum, three banks, capital one million five hundred thousand 
dollars, an insurance company, capital two hundred thousand 
dollars, three political and three religious newspapers, a thea- 
tre, twenty-one inns, including several spacious hotels. ; 

The line of rail-road is now complete from Albany to 
Auburn. Passengers can now leave New-York at five o'clock^, 
be in Utica at three o'clock the next afternoon, at Syracuse at 
six, at Auburn at eight, and at Rochester at five o'clock the 
next morning, and then to Buffalo via Batavia in twelve 
hours— arriving there at five o'clock — forty-eight hours 
from New-York. 

The rail-road hence to Schenectady is described at p. 45 to 
52. This is a famous point for the divergence of roads, stages, 
and canals, to all parts of the State, Hundreds of canal 
boats, laden with the productions of the interior, are con- 
stantly passing to the east, and others with foreign merchan- 
dise to the west. This is a net that catches both ways, and 
passengers here usually leave the canal, from its tediousness 
or monotony, and adopt some new mode of conveyance. 

This city has a mayor, twelve aldermen, four justices, and 
four wards : is distant from New-York two hundred and 
thirty-seven miles, Albany ninety-three, Rochester one hun- 
dred and forty, BufTaio two hundred and two, Ithaca ninety- 
six, Oswego on Lake Ontario seventy-six, Sackett's Harbor 
ninety four, Ogdensburg one hundred and forty-five. 

The city is on the south side of the Mohawk, and occupies 
a slope that faces to the north-west, rising in the rear of the 
city to an eminence of considerable interest, and overlooking 
9 



98 Oneida County — Chateaugaa Hills — Oneida Lake. 

the valley of the Mohawk for miles towards Whitestown, 
Rome, the Oneida Lake, fee. with the heights that lead to 
Trenton Falls fronting the spectator on llie north and east. 

Much of the exciting interest involved in the history of the 
wars of 1756, and 1776 to 83, as to the border and partizan 
warfare of those days, is derived from this vicinity, as in the 
siege of Fort Schuyler, that was situated near the depot and 
bridge at the foot of the main-street. 

Oneida County, that we are now in, contains nineteen large 
cotton f'SCtories, capital about eight hundred thousand dollars, 
and having thirty-three thousand two hundred and thirty-four 
spindles, and making five million six hundred and ninety-seven 
thousand five hundred yards in a year, and use one million 
eight hundred and sixly-three pounds of cotton. Terms of the 
Supreme and of the Uniled States Circuit Courts are held here. 

The Chateaugua hills in the north-east, in Remsen, between 
Trenton Falls and the Black River, are eio:ht hundred and 
forty feet high, and south of that, the Hassencleaver Moun- 
tain in Deerfield and Marcy rises from eight hundred to one 
thousand two hundred feet from a base of eigiit or nine miles 
broad, and a chain twenty miles long ; and in the south, the 
ridge that divides the waters of the Susquehannah from those 
of the Mohawk is one thousand six hundred and twenty-nine 
feet above tide, and the summit level of the Chenango Canal, 
at the head of the river, is seven hundred and six feet above 
the Erie Canal. 

The central part of the county that we pass through as wn 
leave Utica, is remarkably depressed below the country to the 
south and north-east. The vale in its western portion, inclu- 
ding the head of the Oneida Lake, is from ten to twelve miles 
broad, but along the Mohawk, only two to six miles. The 
great cedar swamp south of Rome is three miles broad, and 
from the head of the Oneida Lake to the Rome summit east, 
thirteen miles; the rise is sixty feet, and on the north and 
south sides of the lake it is equally gradual in a few miles. 

The Oneida Lake is twenty-one miles long, east to west, and 
three to five wide, three hundred and seventy-six ieei above 
tide, and one hundred and forty-five above Lake Ontario, and 
its area is seventy or eighty square miles. It abounds with 
palmnn, bass, pike, cat fish, duce, suckers, perch, eels, &c. 
Fort Royal block-house stood at the entrance of Wood Creek, 
and Fort Brewerton at the west end of the lake. 

The outlet, or the Oneida River, twenty rods wide at the 



Oneida Lake Canal— Oneida Institute. 99 

old French Fort, winds sixteen miles to attain eight of west- 
ing, and forms, at its junction with the Seneca, the Oswego 
River. 

The Oneida Lake Canal extends from the Erie Canal in 
Verona to Wood Creek, three and three-quarter miles, cost 
seventy thousand dollars; has one guard and seven lift locks, 
fall fifty-seven and a half feet, locks ninety-six hy fifteen and 
a half. To return the water that is drawn from the Erie 
Canal, an equivalent is provided by a feeder from the Oneida 
Creek at the castle, three and a quarter miles long, with a lock 
of four feet lift, and guard gate. The feeder intersects the 
Erie Canal five miles west of the Oneida Lake Canal, 

Resuming our western route on leaving Utica, the canal 
winds along the level region above referred to, and in three 
and a quarter miles we arrive at the Sanghdaquada or Sau- 
quoit Creek and aqueduct, near the village of VVhitestown, the 
nucleus of the first settlement beyond Albany, in 1788. It is 
a half-shire or place of the courts, in part for this county with 
Rome. Here is a Presbyterian and Baptist Church, Harvey's 
cotton factory, a brick court-house, a prison, one hundred 
dwellings, neat and pleasing to the eye, four stores. 

The Oneida (manual labor) lastitide requires three hours' 
labor per day from each student, as conducive to health, ou 
the farm of one hundred and fourteen acres on the left or 
west bank of the Sauquoit Creek, in full view. The buildings 
are of wood, eighty-two by thirty-two, and forty-eight by 
forty-eight, both three stories high, including in the latter edi- 
fice a chapel, lecture-room, library, readmg-room, dining 
hall, and family rooms. Another edifice forty by twenty-eight 
feet, is the kitchen and steward's departments. Students of 
fifteen to the upper class, and from ten to fifteen to the ju- 
venile. 

The Sauquoit Creek abounds with water power. It rises 
on the high lands in Paris, and runs eighteen miles north- 
west, and i-; bordered by rich lands. York-ville, three an da lialf 
miles from Utica, has three large cotton factories, one machine 
shop, three stores, one tavern, a Presbyterian and a JMethod- 
ist church, and one hundred dwellings. 

Two and three-quarter miles onward, we arrive at Oris- 
kany Creek and village, having an Episcopal and a Presbyte- 
rian church, two woollen factories, (the Oriskany and the Dex- 
ter,) a grist and a saw mill, three taverns, six stores, and 
sixty dwellings. 



100 Rome— Verona Centre — Oneida Sulphur Springs. 

Eight miles we arrive opposite Rome, another of the half- 
shire towns seen at a distance to the north, together with the 
United States Arsenal on the old canal. 

Rome occupies the site of Fort Stanwix, that cost in 1758 
two hundred and sixty-six thousand four hundred <lollars, and 
is on the summit level between the ocean and Lake Ontario, 
(four hundred and ihiriy -five feet above tide at Albany,) having 
the Mohawk River on the east and Wood Creek on the west, 
near the Erie Canal, from which a branch extends through 
the village, two miles to the Mohawk, being part of the work 
of the old Western Navigation Company, of 1796. Rome has 
two Presbyterian, one Episcopal, one Methodist, and one 
Baptist church, an academy, and several select schools, a brick 
court house, a prison, the United States Arsenal, of stone, and 
wooden barracks going to decay, a cotton and a woollen fac- 
tory, a bank, capital one hundred thousand dollars, flouring 
and saw mills, and three hundred and fifty dwellings, and five 
thousand inhabitants, and is a thriving, prosperous village. 
Haxvley''s Basin, three miles west from Rome, on the Erie 
Canal, has six houses. 

Verona Centre, on the Erie Canal, is nine miles from Rome, 
and two south of Wood Creek, has a warehouse, store, tavern, 
and six dwellings. New London, also on the canal, seven 
miles from Rome, has two taverns, four stores and forty 
dwellings, and is the depot for lumber from Salmon River 
and Fish Creeks. Andover has a store, tavern, and twelve 
dwellings. 

The Oneida Sulphur Springs, half a mile south-west from 
the village, with its spacious hotel, is a fashionable resort in 
summer. The glass factory in Verona has made twenty thou- 
sand dollars' worth annually. Three miles beyond, we cross 
the Oneida Creek and valley by an aqueduct of one hundred 
and twenty feet, and embankments ; together four hundred 
feet long, and from twenty to twenty-six feet high. The creek 
enters the Oneida Lake at the south-east corner, and is the 
dividing line between this and Madison county, that we now 
enter upon. Three miles from the Oneida Creek, we pass 
Lenox furnace, and basin, and landing, and in two miles 
further, are at Canaslota Village, creek and basin, thirty-six 
miles from Utica, and fourteen from Morrisville, the county 
seat to the south-east. It has a Methodist, Presbyterian, 
Episcopal, and a Baptist church, one hundred and twenty- 
dwelling houses, a high school, several forwarding merchants, 



Manlius Landing — SpraCnse Aca^emf, 10^ 

g-roceries, four stories, four taverns, and is a lively business 
place. A small vi'ldiie is pas:=e(l in four miles, and in four 
miles farther, we arrive at ChiUsrmigo Creek, aqueduct, ba- 
sin, and feeder, with a side cut of one and a half miles to 
the villae^-e of that name, four locks, of six feet rise each. The 
Villag-e of Ckitleningo has one hundred and tifty dwelling 
houses, three churches, a Dutch, Presl)yterian, and Metho- 
dist, a woollen factory, that uses annually one hundred thou* 
sand pounds of wool, made into broadcloths and cassimeres. 
There are also flouring, gypsum, wafer lime, and saw mills, 
a furn-ice, trip hammer, &c. In the hills near the canal in 
this vicinity, is an abundance of limestone, water or hy- 
draulic cement, lime, and gypsum. Iron ore is said to be in 
the bogs. (See also p. 58, and for Cazennvia and Lake.) 

Eiiiht miles more we are in Onondaga County, at Manlius 
Landing. The village of that name, beino- fnur miles to the 
south on Limestone Creek, has one hundred and lifry dwell- 
ings, a cotton factory, several srist and pa>v mills, six stores. 
Fai/etteville, on the north branch of the Seneca turnpike, and 
by the feeder of the Erie Canal, eiphi mdes from Syracuse, 
has three churches, seventv-five dwellings, six stores, four 
taverns, and two nulls. Kirkville is a thriving villase on the 
canal. Three miles beyond the last landinii is a side cut to 
Orville, and from this is five and a quarter miles to Lodi, be- 
ing at the wtslefn terminnlion of the long level that began at 
Frankfort, in Herkimer County. 

The Stjrncw^e Academy, a splendid brick edifice four sto- 
ries high, with an observatory, occupies the most prominent 
place on tlie iefl foreground as we wind around the last hill, 
and come suddenly in sight of this fine city, with the canal 
here beginning to be enlarged on the new plan of eighty feet 
wide, and eight or ten deep, now locks, fcc. The academy 
has spacious ornamental grounds and garden attached, with 
terraces in front, facing wet^^t towards the city, that has an 
imposing appearance as we draw near to its lofty, spacious 
Warehouses, and ranges of brick edifices, and neat suburban 
private dwellings. There are seven himdred houses, and four 
thousand five hundred inhabitants; and the Syracuse House, of 
brick, four stories, fronting on Water and Salina streets, is one 
of the best hotels in the State, and is thronged with company ; 
the Onondaga County bank is in the adjoining building, and 
also the post office. 

The intelligent stranger that arrives at Syracuse, and does 



102 Salt Springs. 

not inconsiderately neglect to look about him, but spends a day 
or two in an active examination of the localities in this city 
and its vicinity, will derive much gratification from seeing- the 
springs of salt water that rise in great volumes on the imme- 
diate banli of the Onondaga (a fresh water) Lake, and in tra- 
cing the modes and means used in boiling or evaporating this 
strong brine, that in forty-five to fifty-five gallons produces 
a busliel of pure salt, while the sea water on our coast takes 
three hundred and sixty gallons to make seventy-five pounds 
of salt! In 1835, the quantity of salt here rnade was two 
million two hundred and twenty-two thousand six hundred 
and ninety-four bushels; duty, six cents a bushel, amount 
one hundred and eighteen thousand three hundred and sixty- 
four dollars. In 1833, when the duly was twelve and a half 
cents, and only one million eight hundred and thirty-eight 
thousand six iiundred and forty-six bushels were made, the 
duty was two hundred and twenty-seven thousand eight hun- 
dred and sixty dollars. The principal springs are at Salina 
and Geddes. At Salina the well is twenty-two feet deep, and 
ten in diameter, and supplies the works at Salina, Liverpool, 
and Syracuse. 

Salt springs are found for an extent of a hundred and eighty 
miles from Vernon, Oneida County, to the Niagara River, but 
only those in Onondaga and Cayuga are profitably worked. 
The wiiites derived their knowledge of the salt springs from 
the Indians, and by lowering an iron vessel to the spring on 
Mud Creek, then submerged by fresh water a few feet, the 
salt water was obtained, and the same process was used to 
supply the first settlers until other springs were discovered. 
There is a difference in the supply by its diminishing in 
drought, but with improved machmery for pumping, a more 
rapid influx of brine has been produced, with an increase of 
strength from twenty to twenty-five percent, standing at thir- 
teen degrees on the hydrometer of Beaume, of which the 
point of saturation is twenty-two degrees. 

Large quantities of this salt is sent to Canada by the Os- 
wego Canal, and to the western states. In boring for rock 
salt two hundred and fifty feet deep here, no fossil salt or sal- 
iferous rock was passed, but cemented gravel, and the brine 
increased in strength as the depth continued. 

The salt mines in Poland are worked at the depth of seven 
hundred and fifty feet, and those of Eperies at nine hundred 
and ninety feet, and here, also, no doubt, beds of it will eventu- 



Onondaga. 103 

aiiy be penetrated, and ten times the quantity sold, to what 
is now slowly made by boiling^ and solar evaporation. Three 
millions of bushels of salt can be made here yearly by an 
adequate supply of brine. During 1834, a large reservoir of 
the brine was constructed between Liverpool and Salina, on 
the high ground, for factories. Geddes is at the head of the 
lake, and on its west bank, two miles from Syracuse, and has 
fifty dwellings, two stores, &c. From the heights near, are 
fine views of the lake in front, and of cities around the lake 
and on the canal. Liverpool is four and a half miles north of 
Syracuse, has sixty dwellings, stores, taverns, &c. on the bor- 
ders of the lake and Oswego Canal. 

By taking a ride by the rail-road five miles up the hill to 
the quarries, where a thousand men are seen at work raising 
stone from the surface, and in hewing, shaping, modelling, 
he. for the new locks that are to be made on the Erie Canal, 
and in entering the cave or chasm that is here found, and in 
enjoying the extensive prospect from the summit, we can 
promise the explorer and geologist a rich treat. The lime- 
stone is excellent for building, and is used for the masonry on 
the canal, and is easily sent to Oswego, Rochester, Buffalo, &.c. 
in blocks of any size, by the canal, cranes being used for lift- 
ing on and off the boats. 

The rail-road hence to Utica, sixty miles, was finished in 
183S-9, and cost only $600,000 ; the road was rapidly formed 
by Cram's pile-driving machine, and follows the invariable 
level and low grounds. The facility to travelers in con- 
tinuing the rail-road west of Ulica is very great, and from 
this it goes to Auburn, twenty-five miles. 

The valley that contains Syracuse and the Onondaga Lake, 
is within nineteen feet as low as the Cayuga Lake, and is a 
lonafitudinal valley, extending north and south between the 
Onondaga hills, and has always been a remarkable place, and 
was selected by the sagacity of the aborigines, as the richest 
land and the most central abode for the maintenance and 
diffusion of their power, and here for a long time they held 
their secret council fires, and the six. confederated Indian bo- 
dies, the Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Oneidas, Cayugas, 
Tuscaroras, became the terror, not only of the weaker tribes 
of natives, but also of the white man. 

The name of Onondaga is a pure Indian word, and means 
a swamp at the foot of a hill, or a place between two hills. 
Sacandaga, is swamp or marsh. These, like all their names, 

/ 



104 Syractise. 

are sonorons. descriplivp, and strictly characteristic, and should 
be preserved with religious care and veneration. Tlie French 
gave the«e tribes the name of Iroquois. They were never piib* 
dried until the expedilion, dniinji the revolutionarv war, under 
the comtnand of General Sullivan, wlien they were crnshed, 
and the haughty spirit of the confederates tboioughly sub- 
dued, and the tribes scattered. A small remnant of them 
still linger in this valley, and are reluctant to quit the abodes 
of their ancestors, but they are fast fading under tlie influ- 
ence of intrmperance and idleness. 

The site of the present city o{' Syracuse has been cleared 
but a very few years since the Erie Canal was laid out, but it 
has within ten years risen with g^iant strides from an incon- 
siderable hamlet to its present importance, at the e^cponse of 
its suiferinp neighbors, Salina and the Onondagas ; hut this is 
only temporary, as a few years of prosperity is destined to 
fill this central saline valley even to overflowing with popu- 
lation and wealth. 

Throuuh the centre of this county farms sell at from twen- 
ty five to forty and sixty dollars an acre, under L'ood cultiva* 
tion. Wheat gives tvventy, and maize thirty bushels the acre, 
aided by fjypsum. Pine and hemlock, witli deciduous trees, 
densely covered the northern part of the county ; in the cen- 
tre and south, beech, maple, and bass wood. The stumps 
that remain attest the depth and exuberance of the soil. For 
gardens, nolhincr can be better than the rich vegetable matter 
that is here found. 

The red saliferous sand-stone underlays the marsh and 
swamps, plain and lake, and forms a brim around the last. 
The shoal waters and marsh rest on this margin, while the 
deep waters are within it, to the depth of sixty or seventy 
feet. The lake has been lowered two feet, the marshes 
drained, and this place rendered much healthier in conse- 
quence. 

Salina, one and a half miles north of Syracuse, is on a plain 
near the centre of the marsh, with Onondaga Creek near it, 
and here are seventy-seven of the salt manufactories, and the 
Lead salt spring that supplies the works here, and Liverpool, 
and Syracuse, the water being conveyed in subterranean logs. 
The brine is forced to the top of a reservoir eighty-five feet 
high, by pumps driven by the surplus water of the Oswego 
Canal, at the rate of three hundred gallons per minute for 
distribution. Solar evaporation produces the coarse salt, and 



Syracuse— Onondaga Creek, 106 

feosling the fine. Four hundred cords of wood per day are 
tiere used for this purpose. In the evaporating process, a low 
roof that is movable so as to shove off, to admit the rays of the 
sun, or to cover the vat during rain, admits of the deposition in 
a few days of the crystals that form, and are removed when 
matured. 

There are one hundred and thirty-three salt manufacturers, 
three thousand four hundred and twenty-three kettles and 
pans of the capacity of three hundred and thirty-nine thou- 
sand seven hundred and seventy-five gallons, and over a mil- 
lion and a half of superficial feet of vals for solar evapora- 
tion. 

Onondaga Hollow, and Onondaga West Hill are separately 
referred to on the stage route. (See p. 59, and index.) 

The county court-house and public buildings, clerk's ofSce, 
&c. are at Syracuse, it being a village incorporation, is on 
both sides of the Eric Canal, with every thing well arranged 
for business, concentration, and comfort ; has an Episcopal, 
a Presbyterian, a Methodist, and a Baptist church, sixteen 
lawyers, eleven physicians, sixteen general stores, twenty- 
two grocery and provision stores, four drug, two hard-ware, 
four clothing, and five shoe stores, three furnaces and ma- 
chine shops, two flouring and one lumber mills, one planing 
machine, three tin and copper, two leather, one morocco, two 
carriage, three cabinet, three marble, one soap and candle 
manufactories, one of steam-engines and castings, one 
brewery, one distillery, two tanneries, one boat-yard and dry 
dock, two fire engine and one hook and ladder companies. 
The Onondaga Salt Company, and the Syracuse Salt Com- 
pany, each with a capital of one hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars for making coarse salt, fifteen salt blocks or nests of 
kettles for making salt by fire. 

The Onondaga Creek rises in Tully, twenty-eight miles south, 
giving good water power, runs through the village, over 
which the canal is carried in a stone aqueduct of four arches, 
each of thirty feet span. 

For Oswego Canal, see index. A small packet-boat plies 
to Salina every hour, fare twelve and a half cents. Many 
strangers here prefer to leave the Erie Canal and go to 
Oswego, and thence by steam-boat on Lake Ontario to Ni- 
agara, by way of variety. There are two receiving or turn- 
ing basins in Syracuse and Salina, for the accommodation of 
Che salt and other boats. 



106 Bellisle—Nine Mile Creek— Amher— Cross Lahe. 

Soon after quitting Syracuse is a lock of six feet fall, and in 
a mile and a quarter, another of six feet rise, and in liaif a mile 
we pass throngli Geddes, as before mentioned, winding along 
in sight of tlie small Onondaga Lake, six miles in extent and 
one broad, 

Bellisle, on the canal, is a small hamlet of fifteen dwellings, 
six miles from Syracuse, and Amboy is on the Nine Mile 
Creek, or outlet of the Oiisco Lake, seven miles from Syra- 
cuse, and has twenty dwellings, a mill, &c. Camillus, also 
on the same creek, has fifty dwellings, four stores, three tav- 
erns, a grist, saw, carding, and cloth dressing mill. Near the 
village is a quarry of gypsum, the first treasure of that kind 
found and used in this State by Canvass White, Esq. engineer 
on the Erie Canal, the son of Judge White, of Whitestown. 
A feeder one and a half miles long is here formed to con- 
nect with the Erie Canal. 

At the Oiisco, or Nine Mile Creek, six miles from Geddes, 
is an aqueduct and lock of eleven feet rise, and six mdes be- 
yond is Canlon village, fifteen miles from Syracuse, and has 
fifteen dwellings, three stores, and two taverns. Canton is the 
half way village between Albany and Buffalo, one hundred 
and eighty-three miles each way, and seventy-five from Uti- 
ca. The Otisco Lake is four mdes long and half a mile wide, 
and sends forth a powerful stream, the Nine Mile Creek. 

Amher is near the lake, has a Methodist church and 
twelve dwellings. Otisco Centre has a Presbyterian church, 
fifteen dwellings, two stores. 

At Peru are a icw scattered dwellings, a store, &c. on the 
canal, and at Jordan, six miles beyond, is a lock of eleven 
feet fall, and an aqueduct over the Skaneateles Creek of 
three arches, one hundred feet long. Here are one hundred 
and fifty dwellings, a Methodist and Presbyterian church, 
three grist and three saw mills, sash and pail factory, clothing 
works, distillery, twelve grocery and other stores, two drug, 
one tannery. 

Cross Lake, is a basin or reservoir, five miles long and t\v« 
wide, through which the Seneca River passes, in a low 
swampy district, whose surface is three hundred and seventy- 
feet above tide. It is a mile or two north of the canal. 

For Skaneateles village and lake, see stage road, p. 60. At 
Elbridge, three miles south, are Indian remains on a hill, of 
three acres in extent, with a ditch and wall of earth. Here 
are sixty dwellings, three mills, three taverns, three stores.. 



Weedsport — Port Byron— Montezuma. ' 107 

The next six miles introduces us to Weed's Basin or Weeds- 
port, seven mile? nortli of Auburn, eighty-seven from Ulica, 
and twenty six from Syracuse; has one iiundred and twenty 
dwellings, three forwarding houses, a Presbyterian and a Me- 
thodist church, eitjht stores, three taverns, one furnace, one 
saw mill. This is a sort of port, and landing, and embarkation 
for Auburn., and all that part of Cayuga County. Stages 
are in waiting to take passengers, (For Auburn, see stage 
road, p. 61.) Cenlreport has twenty dwellings and a gro- 
cery, a short distance beyond the preceding place. 

Port Byron, three miles west of Weedsport, on the Erie 
Cunal, has one hundred and forty dwellings, one Baptist 
Church, five stores, two taverns, two grist, four saw, and an 
extensive merchant's mill, one distillery, one tannery, one 
cardmg and cloth-dressing mill. Here is a lock of nine feet 
fall, and an aqueduct over the Oioasco Creek, of stone, of 
four arches of twenty feet each. Here are dry docks, and 
large boat-houses, for building and repairing ; and in four and 
a half miles we pass through a lock of nine feet fall, and in 
one and a half miles are at another of seven feet fall, on the 
level of Seneca River, At Montezuma or Lakeport, there are 
forty dwellings, several groceries, a collector's office for ca- 
nal tolls, three taverns, one store. About one mile west of 
the village are the Cayuga or Montezuma marshes. The 
canal-boats for passengers time their arrivals and departure 
to meet the lake steam-boat to and from Ithaca at the head 
of the lake thirty-six miles south. The width of the lake is 
four miles, and its area eighty square miles. A ferry-boat 
plies across at Genoa, King's ferry. The shores of this lake 
are beautifully disposed to please the eye in going on its 
surAice, or traveling on its borders. (See page 62.) 

The salt works at Montezuma, before alluded to, are near 
by, but are not very productive or profitable. It is seven 
miles from this, south, to the Cayuga bridge. The rail-road 
from Auburn to Rochester is in course of construction, and 
will soon complete the line from Albany to Buffalo. 

From Montezuma we cross the Cayuga outlet by a tow- 
path bridge, and over the marshes, and then strike in by the 
valley of Clyde River, in a north-west direction for five miles, 
when we are in IVayna County, in the township of Galen, and 
at a lock of nine feet rise. We continue on for five miles in 
the same direction till we arrive at Clyde Village, and a lock 
o( five feet rise. Here are one hundred neat-looking 



lOS Lyons— Allovday, 

dwellings, a Presbyterian, a Methodist, and a Baptist chmch^ 
many stores and forwarding houses, a cylinder window-glas^ 
factory, two grist, two saw, and one cloth-dressing mill, o 
tannery, and a school, and three taverns. This is eight 
miles east of Lyons. Lock Berlin, on the canal, has a locSs 
of seven feet rise, ten dwellings, store, tavern, and smithy, 
and a Quaker meeting. Thence four and a half miles 
brings us to Lyons^ the capital of Wayne County, and 
to a lock of six feet rise, and to a change from the north 
bank of the Clyde, by a considerable detour round the base 
of a hill, passing the outlet of the Canandaigua Lake, that 
here comes in from the south, and uniting with Mud Creek, 
forms the Ctyde River for forty-three miles, to the union with 
the Cayuga outlet at the marshes. At the confluence of Mud 
Creek and the Canandaigua outlet, and on the north bank, Ly- 
ons is situated, and has two hundred and fifty^dwellings; ma- 
ny of them and of the stores are ot brick, spacious, and are 
fast increasing. It is situated on a plain bounded north and 
east by limestone ridges of gradual ascent, that gives a fine 
panoramic view of the village, the vale to the south-east, and 
of the confluent streams. Here is a Presbyterian, a German 
Lutheran, and a Methodist church, a brick court-house and 
jail on a public square, a bank, capital $^200,000, twenty stores^ 
five taverns, two printing-offices, a furnace, one flouring, one 
grist, one saw mill, one carding and cloth dressing mill. 

The canal of half a mile from the Canandaigua outlet on 
the south side of the river, gives a fall of nine feel and a large 
volume of water ; the greater portion is yet unemployed. A 
bridge is made to cross at this point. 

Mloicay, three miles south of Lyons, on the Canandaigua 
outlet; has two flouring, two saw, two carding and cloth-dress- 
ing mills, two distilleries, one store, two taverns, one Baptist 
church, thirty dweUings. It has a good water power. 

The Erie Canal now crosses by an aqueduct and a lock of 
ten feet rise, over to the south bank of Mud Creek, and in 
four and a half miles are four locks, of eight feet rise each, and 
in one fourth of a mile, Miller's Basin. 

Eleven miles more brings us again alongside of the Mud 
Creek at Palmyra, a town, or village, of 250 dwellings, 
three large canal basins, a Presbyterian, Episcopal, Methodise 
and Baptist church, an academy, a brewery, two tannerieSj, 
twelve general stores, several groceries and druggists, a grist 
and saw mill, a printing-office — thirteen miles from Canandai- 



Fullam'i Basin— -Great Embankment— Rochester. 109 

gvia, twenty-nine from Rochester by canal, twenty-two by 
road. 

In one and a quarter miles from Palmyra the canal again 
"Crosses, by an aqueduct, to the north side of Mud Creek, and 
in two and a half miles a lock of ten feet lift, and three quar- 
ters of a mile a second also often feet lift, in Macedon. Nino 
miles more bring us to FuUam's Basin, in Perrinlon, Monroe 
County, through a marshy tract. At FuUam's, at the ex- 
tremity of the ridge, is a warehouse and tavern. It is 16 
miles from this to Rochester Ity canal, and only eleven by land, 
and stages are in waiting for those wishing to cut across ; but 
no traveler should omit seeing once at least the great enibaiik- 
metit over Irondequoil Creek, that in four miles is now passed 
tiole«s volens in two miles beyond Hartwell's Basin. 

This stupendous embankment of earth is 72 feet above 
the creek, and is two miles long, thus carrying the wondering 
and astonished passenger in mid air, far above the meadows 
below, that may be viewed as a map. The construction 
•of this work was one of great expense to the State, and the 
cause of much anxiety to the engineers, as to the results. 

A lock of eififht feet rise is passed, and then in two miles we 
arrive at Ptllsford, a town of 100 dwellings, six miles south- 
least from Rochester ; has a Presbyterian, a Baptist, and a 
Methodist church, a saw mill on the canal lock, four stores, 
three warehouses, one tannery. Oak openings begin to ap- 
pear in this and in Perrinton, as a new feature. 

Blossomville has a post office, a plaster mill, a Presbyterian 
"chiTch, a store and tavern, and fifteen houses. 

In six and a half miles we meet, at a chain of five locks in 
Brighton, a rise of thirty-seven feet and a half, and are at the 
beginning of the second, or Genesee Long Level, of sixly-fivQ 
miles, that extends westward to Lockport, in Niagara County, 
in three miles we cross the feeder of two miles long, that 
coiaes from the rapids, and are in the city of. 



ISocEiester^ 



Ihe capital of Monroe County. It is a port of entry for the 
Lake Ontario, Genesee district, in north latitude 43°--has 
^,500 dwellings, many of three and four stories liigb, of brick. 
10 



110 Uochesier— Great AqucducL 

and a population of about 17,000, embracing all the me' 
chanic arts and professions. The residences of many of 
the inhabitants indicate wealth, taste, and comfort, having 
court yards, shrubberies and gardens attached. 

The settlement dates from 1812; the incorporation from 
1834. There are five wards, a court-house and jail of stone, 
six large hotels, fourteen churches (two of correct and atlrac 
tive architecture) of all sects, an arcade of six stories, con- 
taining the post office, atheneum, a hotel, and various other 
offices. There is a savings bank, and three banks with an ag- 
gregate capital of $950,000, seven newspapers, (two daily,) 
three bookstores and binderies, and a host of merchants, tra-* 
ders, forwarding and commission houses, grocers, and me- 
chanics of all kinds. The streets are wide, and paved, and 
drained. Three bridges connect the east and west parts of 
the city, besides the great aqueduct, eight hundred feet long, 
on eleven arches. 

The manufacture of flour is here the business of primary 
importance, from the well known and unequalled facilities 
yielded by the falls in the Genesee River, two hundred and 
seventy-one feet, from this to the lake, that, at the English 
valuation of water power, would be S9)'718,272. This power 
is but partially employed at present; there are 24 flouring 
mills, with about 100 run of stones, that can make 60 (to 100) 
barrels each per day, equal to 5,280 a day, or 1,74(5.000 per 
year. 400,000 have been produced, amount $2,700,000. 

There are 11 large saw mills, nine large machine shops, 
that use water power for turning, stone cutting, grinding dye 
woods and bark, grain for distilleries, &c. making edge tools 
and carpets ; of these marts of labor and industry, the Globe 
is the most extensive and curious, a cotton and three woollen 
factories. The value of capital invested in mills and ma- 
chinery is about $750,000, and that required for conducting 
at $2,000,000, and the returns at three millions and a half; 
amount of merchandise sold annually, over two millions. Ex- 
ports by the lake, near a million. 

The situation on the canal and river, and vrith the various 
rail-roads branching like arteries to various directions, and 
pulsating with the most active commerce, and alive with pas- 
sengers," and the canals with boats and merchandise, im- 
presses one with a vivid belief in the general prosperity. 
The Tonnawanta rail-road of 32 miles to Balavia, is de- 



Genesee Falls. 

scribed at p. G6. A short rail-road also extends to Port Gene- 
see, seven miles, and to Cliarlotte; and another one from Scotts- 
viUe,H village of 120 houses, four churches, five mills, 15 miles 
south on the river, up the valley of Allen's Creek, through 
Wheatland, 10 miles, and then to Caledonia, and will be even- 
tually to Le Roy, and west to Batavia, for the benefit of the 
farmers and millers on the route, and to connect with the ca- 
nal from Rochester to Oleau, on the Mleghany River. This 
canal pursues the valley of the Genesee on the west bank, 
keeping- along the edge of the low grounds near the base of 
the hills, to be above inundation, but avoiding- the too great 
sinuosities, and crossing the Genesee by an aqueduct at Mount 
Morris to the east side, from whence it goes suuth to Olean, 
on the Alleghany, (a branch leading off to the south-east, up 
the valley of the Canasoraga Creek to Dansviile, and to Bath 
and Painted Post, to unite with the Chemung Canal at New- 
town.) The Genesee is navigable for small boats 53 miles to 
Mount Morris, and a steam-boat plies to Avon, 20 miles. 

The lake steam- boats come up to Carthage, two miles north 
of the Erie Canal, near the falls Here are GO dwellings, and 
an inclined plane from the landing-place to the warehouse 
160 feet above, with machinery, the steps are 237 ; the rail- 
road from the city ends here. The bridge of one arch of 352 
feet cord, and versed sine 54 feet, summit 196 feet above the 
water, length 718, width 30 foet, was put up in 1819, avx^fell 
down in 1820, with a crash, after a heavy loaded wagon and 
four horses, and a gig had just crossed. It cost $27,000. 

There are two grand falls of the Genesee: the first, about 
a quarter of a mile below the aqueduct, is 96 feet, in three 
distinct sheets ; and below this the river is broad and deep, 
with occasional rapids for a mile and a half to the second fall 
of 20 feet, thence it extends for 400 feet over a rough bed, and 
gathers its waters for the last and final leap of 105 feet per- 
pendicular; thence are rapids to the head of sloop navigation ; 
the ravine throughout, from the upper to tiie lower fall, be- 
ing a deep, narrow, rocky gulf, of over a hundred feet deep ; 
the country on both sides being even to the lake shore, and 
in going from east to west, no indication is given of an ap- 
proach to such a deep indentation in the surface of the earth 
until we are close upon its brink, and in this particular it con- 
forms to the features of the Niagara below the falls to Lewis- 
ton and Queenston. 

Steam-boats that ply from Niagara along the south shore 



112 ' HoUcy Embankme7ii — Sandy Creek. 

of the lake to Oswego, and Sackelt's Harbor, and Ogdeng- 
burgh, also look into this river, and land and receive passen- 
gers. 7ho ridge road from this to Lewiston is 80 miles, 
parallel with the lake shore, and cither by this or some otiier 
mode, (of steam-boat to Niagara River, or of canal to Lock- 
port, or any way that will bring the traveler in such a direc- 
tion to this tVontier, as that he may catch the first view of the 
cataract in going up, either from Leuiston or Queenston,) 
the traveler should a|)proac!i INiagaia till the spectacle sud- 
denly l)ursts upon him in all its panoramic ghry, when be- 
held in front, or coming from the north. In our opinion this 
is preferable to making the approach from the rear, or south, 
and then coming lonnd to the front. 

There are six basins or stopping places at short distances 
between Rochester and Brorkport, viz. Kinji's, six and a half 
miles; Webber's, two and a half beyond ; Kilhorn's, one and a 
half; Spencer's, one an<l a half, within a mile or two o^ Parma 
on the ridge road; then Webster's, one; Bates', two, at the 
embankment over Salmon Creek; Cooler's, two and a half; 
Brockwny or poit, two and a half. This is a town of 300 to 400 
Jiouses, many of (hem of three and four stories high, of bi ick 
or freestone, seven or tight commission wareliouscR. tav«'rn8j, 
stores, in the customary abundance and variety ; one Presbyte- 
rian, one Baptist, and one JNlethodist church, of stone and 
brick, with steeples, also an Episcopal congregation, five 
schoid?, a large college building ol five stcnies high, a grist 
mill, two tanneries, and machine factory. This is a laige wheat 
purchasing mart. 

At the end of the next five miles occurs the Homey em- 
hanlment of 76 feel hith a hove the creek, before enlermg the 
village that contains 70 dwellings, many of brick, on six 
streets, a Baptist and a PIe^b}telian church, thiee mills, a 
furnace, a woollen factoiy for making flannels and cloths, 
besides stores and taverns. 

Sundy Cree/,\ at the junction of the two main branches, lias 
four nulls, fcur stores, three taverns, one tannery, and 25 
dwellings. North Murray has a Bafitist church, two stores, a 
tarern, and ]0 dwellings. Scio, on the canal, .six miles east 
from Albion, has a Methodi.-^t chuich, a mdl, store, a tavern, 
and 20 dwellines. Smitli's Basin is six and a half miles west 
of Hrdley, and is the halfway basin. Gaines' Bnsiii, one and 
a half miles north of Albion, has 12 dwellings, a warehousCj 
and three stores. Gaines' Village has 60 dwellings, three 



OUer Crceh— Albion. 113 

miles north-n^est of Albion, two churches, two taverns, four 
dry goods, one tannery, one ashery. 

Fair Haven, two and a half miles north of Albion, has 15 
dwellings, a store, tavern, and Universalist church. 

Oiler Creek embankment is 55 feet high, and in li miles i$ 
another long' embankment at Clark's Brook of 15 (eet high, 
and in three miles is the Fish Creek embankment, and ai 
arched road-way under the canal. The village of Oak Or 
CHARD is 2h rniles off to the right, on the ridge road, and ha« 
10 dwellings, two taverns, a store, grist, and two saw mills. 

The aqueduct over Oak Orchard Creek has an arch of 60 
feet span, and here conies in a feeder of half a mile long. The 
Oak Orchard Creek has a fall near the canal of 30 feet near 
Medina. The Oak Orchard rises on the table land, south 35 
miles, and runs north towards Lake Ontario, and joins it at 
Fish Bay. It flows through the great Tonnawanta swamp, 
that is 25 miles long east to west, and two to seven in breadth, 
an area of 50,000 acres, and occupies the submerged land 
south of the highest ridge 400 feet above Ontario. In rainy 
seasons this swamp is flooded deep, and drains but slow. An 
open aqueduct or feeder of four and a half miles is cut. 
through marsh, and part of the way through solid rock, by 
which the upper waters of the Tonnawanta, that would other- 
wi.se be absorbed in the Niagara, are now diverted in part to 
the north, and led to the Oak Orchard Creek, that through the 
marsh was sluggish, and before this tapping of the Tonna- 
wanta, was in the summer of no importance; its mass has 
now been greatly increased, and is made use of for hydraulic 
purposes, as after breaking through the barrier on the north 
it is rapid, and has a smooth, rocky bed, and in leaping over 
the ridges, forms some beautiful cascades. 

Albion, the capital of Orleans County, has grown up since 
1823, is on the canal near the centre of the county, 35 miles 
from Rochester, 50 from Buffalo, 28 from Lockport, 18 from 
Batavia, and 10 south of Lake Ontario. It has 2:;i0 dwellings 
of brick and wood ; some are large and neat. The public 
square is decorated by a court house of brick with the county 
offices ; a Presbyterian and a Methodist church, and a school 
for females. It has a bank, capital $200,000, 13 dry goodi, 
one book, one hardware, two drug, and many other stores, 
also tanners, ashery, grist, saw, and cloth and carding mill, a 
furnace, five taverns, various mechanics, nine lawyers, five 
physicians, two newspapers. 

10* 



114 Medina— Barre Centre— Middlepori. 

Medina is 10 miles west of Albion, and has '250 dwellinfrs, 
a Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, and Episcopal church, 10 
dry goods, a brewery, a tanner, a carding and cloth dressing, 
ashinwle factory, three taverns, a high school, and seminary 
for ladies, a nevvspaf)er, &ic. This a business-hke and growing 
village. Ea^le Harbor, three miles west of Albion, has 15 
dwellings, a Methodist church, three stores, and a warehouse. 

Barre C«'ntre, three miles, and South Baire, six miles 
south of Ali)ion, have 25 ilwellings each, Knowlesville, on 
the canal, six miles west of All)ion, has a Bnptisl and Pres- 
byterian church, 30 dwellings, four dry goods, one drug store, 
a tanner, an ashcry, two taverns. Shelby's Basin, on the 
canal, 13 miles west of All)i()n, has a Universalist church, a 
tavern, tannery, two stores, 12 dwellings. 

Servos' Basin is 46 miles from Rochester, and in one quar- 
ter of a mile is the embankment over the middle branch of 
Oak Orchard Creek. 

Middlepori, near the east line of Niagara County, 12 miles 
from Lock port, has 40 dwelling,'?, three warehouses, four 
stores, two taverns, one Methodist cluuch, and an embank- 
ment over the west branch of Oak Orchard Creek. Gasport, 
on the canal six miles east of Locknort, has an inflammable 
spriniT which rises in the canal basin ; it has a few dwellings, 
tavern, store, and a warehouse. One and a half miles west of 
M'ddleport is the embankment over Jolmson's Creek 25 teet 
high, and in three miles on\var<l is the emhankinent over 
Eishteen Mile Creek, 20 feet, and in one mile is a b.'isin. 

Eiiiht miles from a basin, Royallon, brings us along the 
fool of the moutuain ridge to Lockport, the termin-ition of 
the lonji western level of 05 miles from this to Prrriiiton 
beyond rhe Genesee. The natural ravine that here forms an ob- 
looif or horse-shoe amphitheatrical basin of six acres, embo- 
soming and slielterins: the expansion, IS a most remarkab!e/?wai'e 
to this end of ihe long level; and if this ravine had been nmde 
by the aid arul iniieniou< lahors of man, by bbisting and hard 
knocks, at an expense of millions, that in such an event it 
must have cost, it could not even then have received a better 
shape and ailaptation to its pur; oso f*s the magnilicent ter- 
minus to the long level, and the still more stupendous por- 
tal as cut through the rock of 60 or 90 feet, that inlro- 
duces lis to the rocky barrier tliat admits us tu the upper lakes. 

The two Ions,! levels on t!ie canal, and the Lockport basin, 
the Wat Huix gap on the Mohawk, aud perhaps other places 



Lockport, 1 15 

and remarkable features, no doubt conduced to aid the in- 
genuity of man in completing: this Herculean undertaking of 
tracinjr and excavating for 3G2 miles, a channel to unite the 
waters of the lakes and the ocean by the deep majestic link 
of the Hudson and Mohawk. 



Lockport, 

the capital of Niagara County, is founded upon the summit 
and the base of the terrace or rocky ridge, that stretches 
from Lewision heights on the iNiagara, eastward towards the 
Oneida Lake. In 1821 its site was a farm, and was i hen sur- 
veyed and divided into city lots, and the incorporated limits 
of one and three quarters by one and a half miles, cover an 
area of 1,630 acres, and is composed of an upper and lower 
town or terrace. There are 500 houses, and 6,000 inhabitants 
of all grades, and the usual variety of professions, trades, and 
employments. A railroad of 20 miles here extends to Niagara 
Fails.' 

Its buildings, both public and private, are of the excellent 
stone that is here quarried; such is the courthouse anct jail, 
and some of the nine churches or meeting-houses. There is an 
academy, and one seminary for males, and one for females, and 
masty select and common schools, several hotels in good repute, 
a bank, capital 3^100,000, a lyceum for literary and scientific 
piirposes, a library, two bookstores, and numerous dry goods 
and groceries. 

The flouring business here also takes precedence, there 
being tour large mills with 24 run of stonrs tliat make 
annually 47,000 barrels of flour, worth $235,000. The 
great al)unfhincc of water derived from Lake Erie, that 
is brouijht through the \We}^ cut to the brow of the ridge, and 
all around the bas-in, is used in pari for the following mills and 
factori^s, viz. one for sawing stone, one cotton and one 
woollen factory, two doul)Ie ganji saw mills, five single saws, 
one machine simp, two furnaces for forging and working iron, 
one set of machinery for making barrels, one window sash 
factory, one carding and cloth dressing mill. There are 
four WKijon makers, and one coach do., six turning lathes, 
two ch;iir factories, ten smiths, two gun smiths, two tin, cop- 
per, and sheet-iron workers, three newspapers. Th? waste 
water of the above mills, and of the five combined or double 



116 Lockport. 

locks of the sixty feet mountain ridge, after it has fulfilled its 
hydraulic operations in its descent to the basin, is there re- 
tained by a dam across the ravine, and forms tlie head or 
fountain to fill the long or sixty-five mile level, and as such 
is chiefly rrlied on, though the Oak. Orchard, the Genesee, 
and other feeders are useful in their place. 

The upper village is about 80 feet above the level of the 
basin and long level of the canal, and this leads to many pic- 
turesque and pleasing sites, in disposition of houses, water, &c. 

In moving up in a boat to the head of the basin to enter the 
chain of double locks that are arranged in the most massive 
style, side by side, in huge chambers, with stone steps in the 
centre, guarded by iron railings on both sides for safely and 
convenience, the gates of the lock are closed after the boat 
13 in the chamber, and the roaring and sudden influx of the 
water from the lock above, in tiiree or four minutes raises 
the boat to the level of tlie next lock above, and this is re- 
peated five times, the adjoining side lock being, perhaps, em- 
ployed in letting a boat pass down the lock to the basin and 
canal. 

The boat having in this manner risen up 60 feet in five 
lifts, the passenger is astonislied to contemplate before him a 
vista of several miles, bounded on either hand by walls of 
the solid limestone rock, 25 to 30 feet high, and very ap- 
propriately called the Deep Rock Cutting at Lockport, and 
this continues for several miles south, but gradually dimin- 
ishes in height as the rock dips under the soil, wlien we 
emerge at Pendleton, tlirougii a guard lock into the dark wa- 
ters of the Tonnawanta Creek, that by means of a dam at its 
mouth of four and a half feet, that bucks the water and raises 
it to a level with Lake Erie, is, for 12 miles from this, as still 
and sluggish as a canal, and is 120 feet wide and 16 feet 
deep, with a tow-path on its south bank, and in this 12 miles 
is only a descent of one foot. This creek is the boundary of 
Niagara and Erie Counties, and rises in the south part of Gene- 
see, and has a course of norrh-north-west and west for more 
than 80 miles to the Niagara River, opposite Grand Island and 
the new village of Tonnawanla, with its mills and 20 houses, 
&c. From the dam here are outlet locks from the Erie Canal 
to the Niagara River. The East Boston Company, proprie- 
tors of Grand Island, are interested in this place, and also 
own While Haven, on Grand Island, where they have 50 fami- 
lies and 200 workmen, a steam grist mill and saw mill 150 



EllicotVi Creek— Black Rack, 117 

feet square, with room for 15 gangs of saws, a building used 
for school and church, a wharf, and a dock for floating timber. 

EUicoit's Creek comes into the Tonnawania just above the 
dam. 

Turning round to the south and leaving the Tonnawanta 
behind, we advance along tlie banks of the clear blue Niagara 
(here 100 rods in width over to Grand island) on the one 
band, and the higher banks of the Erie Canal on tlie cast, 
passing the Long Meadows at Two Mile Creek, and in six 
miles are at the lower end of Black Rock Harbor, and the 
sloop lock and mills, Skajocketa Creek, and Squaw Island, 
and the mole, then one mile to Black Rock, one to the upper 
end of the mole at Bird Ishmd, and one and a half to Buffalo 
city, the queen of the lakes. 

Black Rock has 350 dwellings, is three miles from Buffalo, 
an<J is opposite to tlie village of Waterloo and Fort Erie, (in 
ruins ) 'ihe River Niagara, or more correctly perhaps, the 
St. Lawrence, is here near one mile wide and 25 feet deep, 
and has a current of six miles an hour, is of a sea green color, 
and has a ferry to the Canadian shore. The mole, a crib 18 
feet wide, filled with stone, that extends from Bird Island 
north, and forms the harbor, (88 to 220 yards broad,) is 4,565 
yards long, nearly parallel to the east shore, thus forming a 
nariow but secure rf fuye inside of the break- water, of an area 
of 136 acres, and raising the water at the lower part of the 
dam four feet, that could be used for 100 mills, that no drought 
or season could ever aflijct. There are now one flouring mill, 
one grist of two run, two saw, a stave, and carding and lulling 
mill, one iron loundery and steam engine factory, a distillery, 
and grinding mill, and at Squaw Island, a saw and shingle 
mill, and a glass factory. 

A rail road of three miles on the low bank at the harbor's 
side leads to BulTalo, and the rail road from Buffalo to the 
Falls of Niagara is on the upper bank. The town | laf em- 
braces 1,212 acres in the mania for speculating in 1836, an 
association purchased the property of P. B. Porter, ot 400 
acres of lanti, house, factories, water power, &c. for ^30(',000. 
The State of New-V'oik formerly ov^'ned a mile in width 
along the fioiitier, from Lake Erie to Ontario, that was not 
sold to the Holland Company. 

The floor of the lake at the water's edge on the Canadian 
shore, near Fori Erie, where the waves and surf act with full 
effect, and where the indraught towards the river is very 



113 Outlet of Lahe Erie. 

strong-, is of linifistone, extending by a gradual slope into the 
lake towards Buffalo. The desolalinf^ effects of war are yet 
visible on the wails of this fortification; some of the iron pills 
are still to be seen, deeply Hxed in the thiols limestone walls, 
that are blackened with smoke. From this position is a fine 
view of the lake, and of Buffalo, Black Rock, and of the 
American shore; and in proceeding from Black Rock by the 
upper town towards Buffalo, is a stdl more extensive view of 
the grandeur of the lake, and of its iron-bound shores on the 
south, to the utmost extent of vision. 

The Erie Canal continues on from the Black Rock harbor 

114 chains to Little Buffalo Creek in the heart of the town, 
with lateral branches through the lower town. 

A mole and pier of wood and stone extends 1,500 feet into 
the lake from the south shore of the creek, and at the ex- 
tremity of the pier is a light house 46 feet high, 20 in diameter 
at base, of yellow sandstone. Vessels of eight feet draught 
can enter this harbor, a mile in extent, and remain secure. A 
ship canal 80 feet wide and 13 deep, near the mouth of the 
creek, extends for 700 yards. 

The approach to this city of the lake is, either by land or 
water, quite imposing, as its domes, turrets, steeples, an<l the 
successi^ streets and lake craft, are developed to our view; 
and when it is considered that all we behold here has arisen 
from the industry and the labor of man within ten or twenty 
years, it is gratifying to any philanthropist as being the result 
of our free institutions. 

A marine hospital and rail-way are erected. 

Buffalo and Black Rock have a supply of water by a canal 
coming from the creek four miles above the city to its eastern 
limits, that has attracted to its borders a considerable popu- 
lation engaged in manufactures. Steam-boats for Detroit and 
the intermediate pons, and for Chippewa and the Falls, go 
daily. Mucii inconvenience to the trade on the canal, and to 
the commerce of Buffalo, is occasioned by the ice, that in 
April, or later, blocks up the harbor for several weeks, and 
this can, perhaps, only be obviated in part, by continuing the 
canal alon^ the lake shore to Dunkirk or Portland, near the 
western border of the State. The great rail-road from Dun- 
kirk through the southern range of counties to the city of 
New-York, about 400 miles long, that is now in progress, is 
another cogent reason why this canal should be continued to 
the same terminating point. 

For description of Buffalo see p. Qd and 70. 




/I' 



>. I 



Erie and Juuclion Canal. 



119 



A LIST OF 
THE PRIKCIFAL. PliACES ON THE CANAL, 

AND THEIR 

DISTANCE FROM EACH OTHER, 

As adopted by tlie Canal Board. 



Erie and JTimciion Canal, 



NAMES OF PLACES. 



Albany, .... 

Port Schuyler, 

Washington, (Gibbonsville,) 

West Troy, 

Junction, .... 

Cohoes, 

Lower Aqueduct, 

Willow Spring, 

Upper Aqueduct, 

Schenectady, 

Rotterdam, 

Phillip's Locks, 

Amsterdam, 

Schoharie Creek, . 

Smithtown, (Auriesville,) 

Caughnawaga, (Fultonvi!l3,) 

Big Nose, 

Spraker's Basin, 

Canajoharie, 

Fort Plain, 

DiefendorPs Landing, 

Mindeii Dam, (St. Johnsville,) 

East Canada Creek, 

Indian Castle, (Nowaudaga Creek,) 

Fink's Ferry, .... 

Little Falls, .... 

Rankin's Lock, (No. 7,) 

Herkimer Lower Bridge, 

Herkimer Upper Bridge, . 

Fulmer's Creek, 

Morgan's Landing, 



1 


DISTANCE 


FROM. 


o 






-2 


-5 a. 


i 


a 


o 


Sm 


< 


E3 


p^ 








110 


269 


5 


5 


105 


264 


1 


6 


104 


263 


1 


7 


103 


262 


a 


9 


101 


260 


1 


10 


100 


259 


3 


13 


97 


256 


6 


19 


91 


250 


7 


26 


84 


243 


4 


30 


80 


239 


9 


39 


71 


230 


b 


44 


66 


225 


3 


47 


63 


222 


5 


52 


58 


217 




54 


56 


215 


3 


57 


53 


212 


7 


64 


46 


205 




66 


44 


203 


3 


69 


41 


200 


3 


72 


38 


197 


3 


75 


35 


194 




77 


33 


192 


4 


81 


29 


188 


a 


83 


27 


186 


3 


86 


24 


183 




88 


22 


181 




91 


19 


178 




95 


15 


174 




96 


14 


173 




97 


13 


172 




98 


12 


171 



« 

364 
359 
358 
357 
355 
354 
351 
345 
338 
334 
325 
320 
317 
312 
310 
307 
300 
298 
295 
292 
289 
287 
283 
281 
278 
276 
273 



267 
277 



120 



Erie and Junction Canal. 





DISTANCE FROM 


NAMES OF PLACES. 


si 

2 & 


s 

.a 


e5 


S 

1 


s 




Ui 


< 


B 


fi 


pa 


Steel's Creek, .... 


99 


11 


170 


265 


Frankfort, 


2 


101 


9 


168 


263 


Ferguson's, ..... 


6 


107 


3 


162 


257 


Utica, 


3 


no 





159 


254 


York Mills, (Wetmore's.) 


3 


113 


3 


156 


'-'51 


"Wh tesboro' 


1 


114 


4 


155 


250 


Oriskauy, " 


3 


117 


7 


152 


247 


Rome, ...... 


8 


125 


15 


144 


239 


Wood Creek Aqueduct, (Fort Bull,) 


2 


127 


17 


142 


237 


Hawley's Basin, .... 


2 


129 


19 


140 


235 


Stoney Creek, .... 


1 


130 


20 


139 


234 


New London, . . . , . 


2 


132 


22 


137 


23^: 


Higgins', ..... 


4 


136 


26 


133 


22^ 


Looniis', ...... 


2 


138 


28 


131 


22( 


Oneida Creek, (Durhamville,) 


3 


141 


31 


128 


22- 


Canastota, 


5 


146 


36 


123 


2]{ 


New Boston, (Canasaraga,) . 


4 


150 


40 


119 


21 


Chittenaugo, 


3 


153 


43 


116 


21 


Pool's Brook, .... 


3 


156 


46 


113 


20 


Kirkville, ...... 


2 


158 


48 


HI 


20 


Little Lake, 


2 


160 


50 


109 


20 


Manlius, (Reels,) .... 


2 


162 


52 


107 


20 


Limestone Feeder, 


1 


163 


53 


106 


20 


Orville Feeder, .... 


2 


165 


.^)5 


104 


19 


Lodi 


5 


170 


60 


99 


19 


Syracuse, ...... 


1 


171 


61 


98 


19 


Geddes, 


2 


173 


63 


96 


19 


Belisle 


4 


177 


67 


92 


18 


Nine Mile Creek, .... 


1 


178 


68 


91 


li= 


Camillus, 


1 


179 


69 


90 


Ig 


Canton, ...... 


5 


184 


74 


85 


li 


Peru, . 


2 


186 


76 


83 


!■ 


Jordan, . . . t . . 


4 


190 


80 


79 


r 


Cold Spring, ..... 


1 


191 


81 


78 


1" 


Weedsport, . . . . • 


5 


196 


86 


73 


If 


Centreport, . . . . . . 


1 


197 


87 


72 


u 


Port Byron, ..... 


2 


199 


89 


70 


u 


Montezuma, (Lakeport,) . 


6 


205 


95 


64 


It 


Lockpit, ...... 


6 


211 


101 


58 


1. 


Clyde . 


5 


216 


106 


53 


1^ 


Lock Berlin, 


5 


221 


HI 


48 


1 


Lyons, ...... 


4 


225 


115 


44 


1 


Lockville, 


6 


231 


121 


38 


1 


Newark, 


1 


232 


122 


37 


1 


Port Gibson, ..... 


3 


235 


125 


34 


1 



Junction and Erie Canal. 



121 



DISTANCE FROM 



NAMES OF PLACES, 



n 



Palmyra, 

Macedonville, 

Wayneport, (Barrager's Basin, 

PerriiUon, (Lindcl s Bridge,) 

Perrinloii Centre, (Col. Petor 

Fairport, 

Fullam's Basin, 

Bushnell's Basin, 

Pittsford, . 

Billinghast's Basin 

Lock No. 3, 

Rocliester, 

Brockway's, 

Spencer's Basin, 

Adams' Basin, 

Cooley's Basin, 

Brockport, . 

Holley, . 

Scio, . 

Albion, 

Gaines' Basin, 

Eagle Harbor, 

Long Bridge, 

Knowlesville, . 

Road Culvert, 

Medina, . 

Shelba Basin, 

Middleport, 

Reynold's Basin 

Gasport, . 

Lockport. . 

Pendleton, 

Welch's, . 

H. Brockway's, 

Tonnawanta, 

Lower Black Rock, 

Black Rock, 

ButTalo, . 



240 

244 

247 

249 

251 

252 

253 

256 

259 

263, 

265 

269 

279 

281 

284 

287 

289 

294 

298 

304 

306 

307 

309 

311 

312 

315 

318 

321 

324 

326 

333 

340 

342 

346 

352 

360 

361 

364 



130 

134 

137 

139 

141 

142 

143 

146 

149 

153 

155 

l.=)9 

169 

171 

174 

177 

179 

184 

188 

194 

196 

197 

U 

201 

202 

205 

208 

211 

214 

216 

2-23 

230 

232 

236 

242 

250 

251 

254 



29 
25 
22 
20 
18 
17 
16 
13 
10 
6 
4 

10 
12 
15 
18 
20 
25 
29 
35 
37 
38 
40 
42 
43 
46 
49 
52 
55 
57 
64 
71 
73 
77 
83 
91 
92 
95 



124 
120 
117 
115 
113 
112 
111 

10.5 
101 
99 
95 
85 
83 
80 
77 
75 
70 
66 
60 
58 
57 
55 
.53 
52 
49 
46 
43 
40 
38 
31 
24 
23 
18 
12 
4 
3 




u 



122 



Champlain Canal. 
CHAMPLAIN CANAL. 



NAMES OF PLACES. 



Albany, 
West Troy, 
Junction, 
Waterford, 
Mechanicville, . 
Stillwater Village, . 
Bleocker's Basin, 
Wilber's Basin, 
Van Duzen's Landing, 
Schuylerville, 
Saratoga Bridge, 
Fort Miller, 
Moses Kill, 
Fort Edward, 
Glenn's Falls Feeder, 
Baker's Basin, 
Smith's Basin, 
Fort Ann, 

Conistock's Landing, 
Whitehall, 



DISTANCE FROM 






- 








O 


S 


A 

^ 
^ 








73 


7 


7 


66 


2 


9 


64 


3 


12 


61 


8 


20 


53 


4 


24 


49 


2 


26 


47 


2 


28 


45 


5 


33 


40 


3 


36 


37 


2 


38 


35 


3 


41 


32 


3 


44 


29 


5 


49 


24 


2 


51 


22 


1 


52 


21 


5 


57 


16 


4 


61 


12 


4 


65 


8 


8 


73 






Whole distance Erie Canal, 363 miles. 

do. do. Champlain do 64 do. 



Route and expenses from JVew- Y'ork to St, Itouis, 

New-York to Albany, 50 cents to $2 00 

Albany to Buffalo, by Erie Canal, in packet boat, . do. 15 00 

" " " " ia line boat, . . do. 9 00 

Buffalo to Erie, by steam, do. 3 00 

Buffalo to Ashtabula by steam, do. 4 50 

Buffalo, to Cleveland, Ohio, by do do. 6 50 

Erie to Beaver, on the Ohio, by stage, including food, do. 5 50 

Beaver to Cincinnati, by steam, .... do. 10 00 

Cincinnati to Louisville, by steam, .... do. 300 

Louisville to Shawneetown, by steam, ... do. 6 00 

Louisville to St. Louis, by steam, .... do. 12 00 



123 




, time 2 



and 
oga, 



ads by 
bbons- 
Dy, six 
90,000.^ 
plot of 
e main 
i large 
ir, ord- 
ational 
lo be- 
ock of 
er, and 
if some 

r Troy, 
taining 
icipaJly 
50,000. 
rations 



Steam-hoat Route to St. Louig. 123 

Steam-boat route to St, Louis^ via Lake JErie, SCc, 
above 1200 miles. 

From Buffalo to Dunkirk, 45 miles. 

Portland, 60 

Erie, 90 

Salem, 120 

Ashtabula, 135 

Grand River, 165 

Cleveland, 195 

Huron, 245 

Sandusky, 260 

Detroit, 330 

Mackina, 600 

Green Bay, 750 

Chicago, 900 

Stage coaches go from Chicago to St. Louis, 320 miles. 

do. to Galen, Wisconsin, is 160 miles, time 2 

days and nights, stage fare $12 to $15. 



Route from Albany, Troy, Ballston, and 
Saratog:a, to Lake Oeorg^e, Ticonderog^a, 
and Whitehall. 

The capital macadamized road of six miles, that leads by 
the side of the Erie Canal and the Hudson River to Gibbons- 
ville, and past the United States arsenal to West Troy, six 
miles, is one of the best roads in the State, and cost $90,000. 
The Arsenal is comprised within a very extensive plot of 
ground, bisected by the Erie Canal, and adjoining the main 
road, and consists of several fire-proof edifices, and large 
stores of small arms, and the various munitions of war, ord- 
nance shops, &,c. ; this is one of the most important national 
dep6ts, and is worth a moment's time of the traveler to be- 
hold, as the armory always contains an immense stock of 
small arms, arranged in glittering and imposing manner, and 
the relics of the revolutionary parks of artillery, and of some 
presented by the King of France, Louis 14th. 

West Troy has grown up rapidly, and is a suburb of Troy, 
and with it identified in interest and prosperity, containing 
500 dwellings and 3,300 inhabitants, employed principally 
in manufactures, with a bank of a capital of $150,000. 
There is an India rubber manufactory, and several operations 



124 Troy. 

carried on that derive water power from the surplus waters 
of the Erie and Junction Canals, that by a side cut have an 
outlet here into the Hudson, and across the river to Troy, 
and the intercourse by means of ferries and the rail-road 
bridge is constantly kept up. 

One of the sprouts of the Mohawk passes under the bridge 
that leads from West Troy to Tibbitt's Island. The lowdr 
ferry near the arsenal leads across the Hudson, here one 
eighth of a mile wide, to Washington-street and the foot of 
Mount Ida on the east bank, 300 feet high, from which is one 
of the finest views and panoramic scenes on the Hudson. The 
mansion and grounds of John Hart and Wilson oc- 
cupy the summit, and George Tibbitts the next one north. 

The middle ferry, passing beyond Liberty and Division- 
streets, lands at Ferry-street, and penetrates the central part 
of the city to the east. The next streets in a parallel direc- 
tion to the last, are in succession, Congress, State, Albany, 
Elbow, Grand; the two latter extending east past the Rens- 
selaer Institute, established by the late patroon, Stephen 
Van Rensselaer, Esq. for gratuitous education, by A. Eaton. 

The next in order are Federal street, and the rail-road 
bridge, Jacob, Hutton, and Hoosack-streets ; from the latter, 
the capital macadamized road leads out north-east to Ben- 
nington in Vermont, 28 miles, and the company that con- 
structed it have the grant of laying rails on the same, con- 
nected with the rail-road to Brattleboro', on the Connecticut 
River ; thence is a road to Lowell, on the Merrimack, mak- 
ing a new route to Boston. 

The next streets north of Hoosick are Vanderheyden, Jay, 
Rensselaer, and North, (east of which is Mount Olympus, 120 
feet high,) then Middlebury, Canal, and Dow-streets, and the 
water-works on the north, and the State dam of nine feet high, 
extending across the Hudson, and backing the water to Lan- 
singburg and Waterford, with locks of a size to pass sloops. 

River-street is the principal thoroughfare next to the Hud- 
son, and contains the principal warehouses, stores, and shops, 
and some hotels ; the Mechanic, the Troy, and Mansion 
houses ; the two latter on Albany and River-streets, the 
Frankliyi, corner of Elbow-street, and Washington Hall, cor- 
ner of Grand and Division-streets, and SlearrVs, near King- 
street, and the Northern Hotel between Jacob, and Hutton, 
and River, and Second-streets, the American, and the Na- 
tional. 



Troy, 125 

Next to River-street on the east, are streets named from 
First to Seventh streets, and on First street is the bank of 
Troy, the Presbyterian and Scotch Presbyterian churches, 
and on the Second street is the celebrated Seminary for fe- 
males, so long and ably managed by Mrs. Willard, (lately re- 
tired, and succeeded by her son and daughter-in-law, Mr. 
and Mrs. John H. Willard, as joint principals, aided by 17 
assistant teachers.) The terms are $240 per annum. The 
Episcopal and Presbyterian churches are creditable and orna- 
mental edifices, as is the court house of marble, with pillars ia 
the Grecian style. 

Troy has a population of 20,000, four banks, total capital 
$1,318,000, and three insurance companies $800,000, 12 
churches, (four Presbyterian, two Episcopal, one Baptist, one 
Methodist, one Roman Catholic, one Bethel, one Friends, one 
Universalist,) a market and a jail, a lyceum of natural his- 
tory and cabinet of minerals, an asylum for orphans, and a 
house of industry, several daily and weekly papers, and 
many schools. The houses are of brick, there having been 
several large fires that have most used up the wooden ones, 
and the streets are paved, and ornamented with trees, and jets 
of water from the reservoir, that has a head of 75 feet, and 
supplies the city by iron pipes subterranean. 

The warehouses fronting tlie Hudson are lofty, and the 
enterprise, activity, zeal, and public spirit manifested by the 
citizens of Troy, in competing with Albany for the steam-boat 
business, and the canal and river trade, and in rail-roads to 
the Springs, and roads to the interior, evince the stamina of 
wealth and perseverance. 

As a residence either temporary or permanent, for business, 
or pleasure, or health, it has much to recommend it. It is in- 
corporated, and has six wards, a mayor, and 12 aldermen. 

The first house built in the village of Vanderheyden, as it 
was called in 1707, yet remains, corner of River and Division- 
streets, in 1787 there were but four dwellings, and the 
ground was covered with oaks and pines. The Poesten and 
Wynant's Kill, coming from the east, have a descent of 400 
feet in four miles, of which 270 are in the city bounds, and 
give great power, that is used for a variety of purposes, by- 
four flouring mills (capable of making 100,000 barrels of flour 
yearly,) a wool and cotton factory, nail and spike factory, and 
rolling and slitting, one paper mill. 

Cascadilla,9.t\he ironworks one mile off, has 60 dwellings. 

n* 



1 26 Troy—Lansingburg. 

There are also air furnaces, steam engine and machine fac- 
tory, breweries, tanneries, four large tallow chandlers, famous 
for making- best tallow candles, two carriage ffvetories, whose 
stages are seen all over the United States, bell and brass 
founderies, three plaster mills, two burr mill stone factories, 
a shovel and spade factory, a rope walk, bleaching and col- 
oring works. There are 100 vessels owned in this place, and 
several of the largest steam boats on the Hudson, that carry 
yearly 232,000 tons of freight, and 10 tow boats that carry 
66,000 tons, 100 canal boats, of 30 to 40 tons eacii, belonging 
to the Troy line to bring produce to this city direct, 67 cot- 
ton and 40 woollen factories are within the range and influ- 
ence of the Troy market to the east and north, and draw 
their supplies hence, and the water power that is still unem- 
ployed in this vicinity, that may be drawn from the Hudson 
and Mohawk, &c. is immense. 

A pleasant walk m;«y be taken along the banks of the Poes- 
ten, and other kills, tracing them up to their summits, through 
narrow gorges or ravines, and cragged rocks, amid trees, and 
shrubs, and murmuring falls and cascades, wild, romantic, 
and picturesque. 

The great slide or land slip that took place from the dis- 
ruption of a hill to the east of, and immediately in the rear 
of Troy, in 1837, by which several lives were lost, is well 
worth viewing as a matter of curiosity, and (hough the ascent, 
by toiling up Congress street, past Mr. Tibbitl's, and thence 
to the right or south to Mount Ida, may be arduous, j'et the 
view that will unfold itself to the eye is splendid, and cannot 
but be impressive. 

The alluvial flats at the foot of the hill are from a quarter 
to half a mile wide, and the arrangement of the city plat is 
into blocks of 400 by 280 feet, intersected by alleys. Fifteen 
of the streets range north and south, and 19 east and west, 
and are 60 feet wide, and graveled or paved, and lighted. 

Omnibusses and stages are continually passing between 
Albany and Troy, for a fare of 12^ cents each passenger. 

Lansingburgh three miles north of Troy, has 3,000 inhabit- 
ants, six churches, and 500 dwellings, principally on one 
street, and a bank. It is laid out in squares 400 by 260 feet, with 
alleys and wide streets, is opposite the mouth of the Mohawk, 
and the roar of the Cohoes Falls can be heard at night, and 
from the hills in the rear it can be seen at a distance of five 
miles west, beyond Van Shaick's Island, where was the camp 



Waterford— Rensselaer and Saratoga Rail-road. 127 

of the Americans before the capture of Burgoyne at Saratoga, 
in 1777. and here the army under Gen. Schuyler had en- 
trenched, and were to liave made a last and desperate stand, 
if the enemy had thus far advanced. 

Famous good ale is here made by several establishments on 
a large scale, and there are 40 stores, and much business, and 
many mills and factories, slaughtering and packing houses, 
oil cloths, bruslies and bellows, guns and rifles, machine 
cards, &c. The communication with the towns below, by 
hourly coaches, omnibusses, &c. make this almost a suburb 
of Troy. 

Walerford has four churches, 200 dwellings, population 
2,000, and a bank with a capital of $100,000, several flour 
mills and manut'actories that derive their water power from 
the Mohawk, and here are three locks of U feet, uniting the 
Champlain Canal to the Hudson and Mohawk. The bridge 
over the Hudson to Lansingburg, of 800 feet long, cost S'70,C00, 
was carried away in the great storm and freshet of 26th and 
27th of January , 1839. This is the extreme head ofsloop navi- 
gation. The Cohoes Falls, on the Mohawk, that are else- 
where described, (see p. 88,) may be visited in a ride of three 
miles from this place, and the aqueduct over the Mohawk, 
and other scenes and points of importance. 

The Rensselaer &.v\d Saratoga Rail-road starts in Troy from 
the vicinity of the fashionable hotels, theTroy House, and the 
Mansion House, at the junction of Albany and River-streets, 
and goes through River to Frederick-street, and thence crosses 
the Hudson by a covered bridge 1,600 feet long, on eight piers 
of cut stone, 30 feet above high water, and 34 feet wide, with 
a water way of 180 feet between each pier, two of them rest- 
ing on Fish Island, thence to Tibbitt's or Green island, and 
then assumes a direction to the north four and a half miles, 
passing over the delta and three branches of the Mohawk on 
bridges resting on substantial abutments of stone to Water- 
ford, thence following side by side with the canal and the Hud- 
son River for eight miles to Mechanicsville, a village of a i'ew 
mills and 60 dwellings, then crossing the canal, turns to the 
north-west up the valley, and past Round Lake in four miles, 
and in six miles from this, a creek, and for two miles it runs 
in close proximiiy to the Saratoga and Schenectady Rail-road, 
and enters Ballston Spa, and there uniting with the other 
road, both trains pass on to Saratoga, after a few minutes 
halt to discharge ihoso passengers desirous of remaining 



128 ' The Stimpson Farm — Ballston Springs. 

at Ballston for a few days to test the exhilarating qualities of 
its famous medicinal waters, and enjoy the fasliionable so- 
ciety at the Sans Soiici and the other hotels. Twenty-four 
miles from Troy, seven from Saratoga, 30 from Albany. 

There are three churches, a reading room, a court house, a 
jail, a six story brick building intended for a cotton factory, 
several mills, six hotels and stores, 180 houses, and 1,100 in- 
habitants. It is situated in a vale, and a small creek winds 
its way through the centre, and has a succession of cascades, 
where art has added to the picturesque effect. 

The price of board is from three to eight or ten dollars a 
week. As there are two post offices in the town, travelers 
must be careful to have their letters and papers sent to Ballston 
Spa. 

The Stimpson Farm in Galway, of 1000 acres, is on a spur 
of a mountain 10 miles north-west of the spa in Ballston, 
and as boarders are reeeived by the proprietor, and the farm 
is celebrated as a pattern, and is wilhal situated in a position 
overlooking a large extent ol'country, a visit to it, in making a 
circuit through the neighborhood, is recommended. 

By his method, four tons of hay and 100 bushels of corn 
to the acre have been realized. 

Galway Corners has two churches, four stores, 40 dwellings, 
and two public houses. West Galway, three miles further, 
has 20 dwellmgs, and a meeting-house for Quakers, Baptists, 
and Presbyterians. 

A ride on the plains between the Green and Mayfield Moun- 
tains, is a favorite excursion with strangers. 

The Sans Souci is the most prominent building in this vil- 
lage, and is of wood, with a front of 160 feet, and wings of 
150 feet, and three stories high; that, with its broad piazzas, 
and court yard tastefully embellished with trees and shrub- 
bery, its neat lawns, clean and well kept gardens and grounds, 
makes an agreeable impression on the traveler as the train 
takes a sweep through the village, crosses the Kyaderasseraf, 
and he alights at this splendid hotel. 

The spring in the rear of the hotel, and that in the rear of 
the village hotel, and the original spring at the west of the 
village, contain, as essential ingredients, the carbonates of so- 
da, oflime, iron, and magnesia; the tonic qualities of the iron, 
and the sparkling and enlivening influence of the fixed air 
that they possess in an extraordinary degree, have a wonderful 
effect upon enervated, bilious, and debilitated constitutions. 



Ballsion Lake— Saratoga Springs. 129 

Such is the salutary effect of these waters upon some, that 
an annual resort to them in summer is indispensable, but to 
strangers prudence would dictate that the advice of a resi- 
dent physician should always be obtained as to the quantity 
and mode of taking them. 

Ballston, or Long Lake, is five miles south of the Spa, and 
is a fine body of pure water, five miles in extent north and 
south, and one wide, and yields good sport to the votaries of 
old Isaac Walton ; and the same may be said of other lakes 
in this county and vicinity, such as Saratoga, Round and Owl 
Lakes ; the former is nine miles long by three wide, six south 
of Saratoga and six east of Ballston Spa ; and at the taverns 
on the west shore of the lake are good accommodations, and 
the necessary equipments for fishing, fowling, or sailing. The 
border of the Saratoga Lake is marshy and accessible but in 
few places, but soon rises into elevated ridges amphitheatri- 
cally, with some cultivation. Snake hill on the east shore 
is 200 feet high, and intrudes into the lake three miles 
from the south end. The argillaceous and graywacke slate 
composing its rock strata is remarkably contorted. The 
lake is supplied by the Kyaderasseras Creek that heads in the 
mountains a few miles to the nortli-west, and its outlet is 
Fish Creek, that joins the Hudson at Schuylerville eight miles 
east. (See index ) 

As the cars leave Ballston for Saratoga, the road curves 
to the north through the principal street over a bridge and 
an embankment, and then strikes off to the north-east over 
the creek, which course it continues to Saratoga. The line 
of this road of 21| miles, passing the Ballston Lake as above 
described, is over a country so level as not to require an 
inclination over 16 feet per mile; its cost, from its cheap 
construction, being only $300,000, with engine, cars, &c. ; 
the sills of wood with iron plates. 



Saratog^a Spriogs, 

that are now so easily reached by rail-road from Albany or 
Troy, are situated on a broad street, on which are the princi- 
pal hotels, five churches and 250 dwellings. The hotels in 
most repute are the United Slates, an edifice of brick, 
200 feet by 36, four stories high, with a wing of 60 feet 
on the north and three stories high, and another on the sotith 



130 Congress Hall — Pavillion—Union Hall, gfc. 

of 100 feet by 50, with commodious parlors and bed-rooms 
for families. The grand piazza in front extends and connects 
with that on the south and rear, and the ground and garden 
is most tastefully and pleasingly laid out, and admirably well 
kept, clean and attractive; the house can receive 300, and 
the dining and drawing rooms are capacious and elegant. 
There are about five acres attached to this establishment, 
with extensive stables, &,c. The liouse is kept by Seaman 
and Marvin. 

The Congress Hall is 200 feet in front and three stories 
high, with an attic, and has a wing of 60 and one of 100 
feet. But the most striking and effective feature in this 
spacious edifice, and in fact in the entire village street, 
is the ample piazza in front, and its pillars of wood en- 
twined with evergreens in the happiest manner, with a 
flower garden in front of the colonnade, separated from the 
street by a neat railing. A pine grove and a garden in the 
rear are enjoyed from the back piazza. The construction 
is of wood, and can also receive 300. It is the nearest 
to the Congress Spring, the fountain of health, and has a 
gravel walk and shade trees leading thereto. 

The Painllion is of wood, and has a front of 136 feet, and a 
wing of 80, and one of 200 feet, with private parlors 
and lodging rooms, convenient for families. It is two and 
a half stories high with an attic, and a portico and collonade 
in front ; a large garden, with a small lake in the rear for 
fishing. The rooms are so arranged with folding doors as to 
throw open the whole into one grand saloon, for dining or 
for balls and large assemblies. 

The Union Hall, opposite the Congress, 120 feet front and 
three stories high, with two wings of 60 feet, and a building 
adjoining of 100 feet, with private parlors and a garden in 
the rear ; kept by Putnam and Taylor, The Adelphi Hotel 
is brick, three stories high, near the United States; kept by 
Mr. Cross. 

The Columbian Hotel, south of the Pavillion, has a garden. 

The Washington Hall, a retired house in the north part of 
the street, free from noise and dissipation. Boarding may 
be had from four to twelve dollars per week. 

Prospect Hall, one mile north-west, by B. R. Putnam, and 
Highland Hall, half a mile south of the Congress, may be 
resorted to in case of need. 

The healing virtues of these waters to invalids was un- 



Higli Rock Spring, 131 

folded by the aborigines to their friend and patron, Sir William 
Johnson, in 1767, when he was borne to the spring on a lit- 
ter, but by the use of the waters a few weeks, he was rein- 
stated in health. At that time, bears, deer, wolves and moose 
abounded, beaver and salmon-trout sported in the stream, and 
the huts of the Indians were scattered in the valley. 

In 1783, Gea, P. Schuyler came from Fish Creek and spent 
several weeks under a tent with his family, near the High 
Rock Spring, and in 1789 G. Putnam came in, and with him 
and his descendants, and other settlers of that day, began 
the permanent settlement and improvements that have con- 
tinued to the present time. 

The High Rock Spring, rising as it does in a circular aper- 
ture to a certain height in the interior of a dome-shaped 
rock, elevated several feet above the surrounding level, would 
in any part of the world be viewed as a remarkable curiosity ; 
but when accompanied as it is by the emission of such a 
quantity of fixed air, the deadly carbonic acid gas of the labo- 
ratory of nature, with the mysterious and alarming effect 
upon animal life that it exhibits, great indeed must have been 
the astonishment of the early discoverers. 

Even now its " grotto del cane," unseen cause, though 
understood and explained, is to the uninitiated a gaping 
wonder, that will attract for ever thousands of pilgrims and 
worshippers. 

In 1792, Mr. Gillman, a member of Congress, discovered the 
Spring that bears that name, issuing from an aperture in the 
side of a rock that bordered the little brook that rises from 
the earth 50 rods west, and for several years it could only be 
collected in small quantities as it came from the rock, only 
to tantalize the eager and tliirsty recipient; attempts were 
made to excavate and search for its source, and for a time it 
was lost, and the goose that has since returned and placed its 
golden egg beneath, fled for a time from the eager and prying 
curiosity of man, but the sagacious Putnam, observing, after a 
la{)se of events, signs of gas rising through the water of the 
brook, turned the stream aside, and by digging eight feet 
through marl and gravel, recovered the sacred f()Untain, placed 
a tube of plank ten inches square rising to the surface, from 
whence f^ows the precious fluid in abundance — one gallon per 
minute — and can be increased by lessening the pressure in 
the curb. The temperature is 50° Fahrenheit. The analysis of 
Dr. Steel gives, in a gallon of 231 cubic inches of water, 



132 Columbian, Washington, Hamilton Springs. 

chloride of sodium or sea salt 385 grains ; hydriodate of soda, 
3.5; bicarbonate of soda, 8.982, bicarbonate of magnesia, 
S5.7SS ; carbonate of lime, 98.093 ; carbonate of iron, 5.075 ; 
siiex, 1.5; total, 597.943 grains; and of carbonic acid gas, 
311; atmospheric air, seven ; total, 318 cubic inches. 

The gas affects respiration near the surface of the foun- 
tain, and fish and frogs when immersed in the water perish. 
The water is used in a fresh gaseous state in making bread, 
or in preparing hot cakes, in which sour cream is a compo- 
nent, and forms an expeditious and palatable article. When 
first brought up from the tubes it is limpid and sparkling, but 
soon has a pellicle and sediment, and the glass has a stain; 
four to six half-pints in the morning before breakfast operate 
as a cathartic and diuretic, and give increased appetite and 
vigor. 

There aro 18 other springs that are all of nearly the same 
properties, and rise in the same valley, vix. the Columbian 
Springs^ the Washington, the Hamilton, the Flat Rock, and 
the High Rock, the President, 30 rods north, the Red Spring, 
^0 rods north-east; the Barrel, the Walton, the Monroe, the 
Ten Springs, one mile east; Ellis's, two miles south-west, 
issues horizontally, sparkling, clear, acidulous and chalybeate, 
and is esteemed for its iron ; irs temperature is 48°. The 
third in the list is in the rear of Congress Hail, and the next 
in the rear of the Pavillion, 100 rods north-east, under a small 
Cliinese temple over the well, that is 15 feet deep, and curbed. 
The High Rock is 100 rods further north, and is composed of 
Hme, magnesia and oxide of iron, sand and clay ; its height, 
four feet , circumference at base, 26 feet eight inches ; a line 
over the top from north to south, 11 feet seven inches; and 
from east to west, 10 feet nine inches; from the top of the 
rock to the surface of the water, two feet four inches ; depth 
of water, seven feet six inches; diameter of opening at top, 
10 inches ; and from this sky-light opening a person may look 
into the interior formation of the dome, from whence, no 
doubt, the water formerly issued and deposited its sediment 
equally around in this tuffa formation. 

Bathing houses may be found at the Washington, Hamilton, 
Putnam, and Monroe Springs. The enormous quantity of 
fixed ttir that is contained in the water of the Congress, to the 
sum of more than its bulk, cannot be equalled by any other in 
the world, and to this it is indebted for its celebrity.' 

The amusements that a sojourner at Saratoga may enjoy, 



Sacondaga River— Lakes, S^e, " \s% 

besides the rides to the lakes and falls within a few miles, 
and the regular balls and evening parties at the various hotels, 
consist in a subscription to the excellent library and reading- 
room on the block north of the United States Hotel. The 
library is possessed of several thousand volumes, and the 
reading-room supplied with 100 papers, periodicals, &c. and 
a register is kept of the arrivals and departures of the vast 
concourse of strangers that throng this place in the sultry 
jnonths of June, July, and August. 

Mails from Boston, New-York, Philadelphia, Albany, arrive 
with great punctuality, and are closed daily at nine A. M. 
The same caution should be used here as at Ballston Spa, in 
having letters and papers directed to Saratoga Springs, other- 
wise they go to, and remain at the other Saratoga Post-0fl5ce, 
twelve miles distant. 

The direct distance to Sandy Hill is 14i miles, or to Glenn's 
Falls ontlie Hudson 11 miles in a north-east direction, and to 
those desirous of viewing the splendid falls, Hadley'sand Jes- 
sup's, Glenn's and Baker's, that the pencil of Wall has sketched 
in the Hudson River Portfolio, it is suggested to those intend- 
ing to continue on to the north to Lakes George and Cham- 
plain, Montreal and Quebec, that by hiring a coach at Sarato- 
ga it will be but a slight variation from their route, to proceed 
in the first place to the upper falls in the town of Luzerne, 
about 13 miles from Saratoga, past Jessup's Landing to the 
junction of the Sacondaga with the Hudson at Jessup's Falls, 
and then crossing the Hudson at Jessup's Landing near and 
above Hadley's Falls, and continuing on to Glenn's at the in- 
tersection of the road from the south to Lake George, and 
taking the best conveyances at Sandy Hill, the rail-road 
cars, or stages, to Whitehall 22 miles, and the steam-boat 
down the lake to St. John's, Canada, 122 miles; or else go 
from Sandy Hill or Glenn's Falls to Caldwell, at the head of 
Lake George, and bv steam-boat 36 miles to Alexandria, en- 
joying the ravishingscenes that are unfolded to the eye of the 
delighted tourist on this lake, the very beau ideal of all that 
is picturesque and beautiful, and replete with scenes of the 
greatest historical interest to the well-read American citizen 
and patriot. 

The Sacondaga branch of the Hudson River is about SOmiic:* 
long. Its sources are in an elevated mountain region, em- 
bosoming a system of lakes, the Piseker, the Oxbow Round, 
and Pleasant Lakes, thai may be reached by following up ths 
12 



134 Lake Pleasant— Stillwater— Bemus^ Heights, 

Saconda^a valley from the fish-house in Broadalbin, and up 
(ro Lake Pleasant, the Long Lakes, and others in the wild cen- 
tral regions of Hamilton County, itself worthy of a distinct 
exploration on foot, and of a detailed description ; the other 
branches of the Hudson will be alluded to hereafter. 

Leaving Saratoga, and taking the road that leads east and 
crosses Fish Creek, the outlet of Saratoga Lake, we arrive in 
eight miles at its junction with the Hudson, and on the arena 
where was enacted some of the most important events in the 
drama of the revolution, and we divergent part from the regu- 
lar route, to trace back the chain of military results that 
transpired in this vicinity. 

An overwhelming British force under Gen. Burgoyne hail 
succeeded in penetrating from Canada into tlie heart of the 
state of New-York in powerful array, carrying in their pro- 
gress the strong works at Crown Point and Ticonderoga, and 
arriving at Whitehall, the southern termination of Lake 
Champlain, flusiiedwith victory, began to form a road through 
the wilderness to Fort Ann, and traces of it yet remain, and 
from thence advanced down the Hudson valley, driving all 
before them, to Stillwater, at which place a severe action oc- 
curred on the 17th September, 1777, that broke the charm of 
invincihilitv, and caused the enemy to retrace their steps, 
but the clustering and gathering of the regular troops and 
militia hemmed in and prevented the advance or retreat of 
the gallant foe, and finally caused a capitulation on the 17th 
October. 

Oa this field the traveler may look down upon, from the 
hotel, it being the meadow on the margin of the Hudson and 
Fish Creek, where are distinct remains of Forts Hardy and 
Schuyler, the latter being a furlong to the soutli-east, over- 
looking tiie river and creek, the northern or Champlain Canal 
being adjacent, and the residence of the Schuyler family, 
and the owner of the cotton factory, and the village known as 
Schui/lerviUe. 

At Stillwater and on Bemus' Heights, two miles west of 
the river, was the fierce and sanguinary struggle between the 
British farces and the Americans, that on tlie 19th September 
and 7th October decided the fate not only of the defeated 
army at that time, but, by its moral efiect and animation, led, 
perhaps, to a succession of triumphs, and the establish- 
ment of the independence of a great nation, and that in its 
future results and influences will be extensive as the civilized 
world. 



Stillwater— Bemus'' Heights. 135 

The right wing- of the British army, consisting of light 
troops, kept along or near the summit of the ridge as tliey 
advanced to the soutli, and commanded and overlooked the 
plain beneath, while the lieavy artillery and baggage contin- 
ued by the road tliat runs near to and parallel with the river, 
while the Americans advancing to the north to meet them, 
had tlieir right wing and guns on the river road, and their 
left wing and skirmishers and riflemen on the heights, and 
this was the respective positions of the armies when the onset 
commenced. 

Much of the battle-ground was interspersed with trees, of 
which but a iew are living, but there was also some more 
open grounds, and such was the aspect of the spot designa- 
ted as Freeman's farm in the dispatches of that day, and such 
it remains, as also does a trace of the British encampment. 
The road extends across the farm from east to west at right 
angles to the main road north and south, and just to the east 
of this intersection was the hottest of the fight, and a few rods 
south of a blacksmith's-shop close to a fence. Gen. Frazer, the 
second in command, fell by a rifle shot from one of Morgan's 
corps. The head quarters of Gen. Gates are seen half a mile 
south. 

Tlie pathetic scenes that took place amid the wounded and 
dying, and that have been so feelingly and graphically de- 
picted by the dramatic and gentlemanly pen of Burgoyne, and 
the female tenderness of the Baroness Reidesdel, occurred in 
a dilapidated antiquated dwelling, painted red and yellow, 
with the entrance and end facing the river, it having been re- 
moved from its original position that was a quarter of a mile 
south-west. 

Nearly all the river hills west of the Hudson from Bemus' 
Heights to Fort Miller, twelve miles, have some remains of the 
hasty ramparts thrown up by the contending armies ; and 
there are also some above and on the east of the river, that 
may be seen from the canal and stage road. 

A mile and half above Schuylerviile, the Battenkill comes 
in to the Hudson from the east, its sources being at the base 
of the Green Mountains in Vermont twenty miles distant, and 
also a portion from the Big Pond in Argyle ; it has a rapid 
current and several falls, and one three miles from its mouth 
of 60 feet, that in freshets is worth beholding. There is a 
bridge over the stream near its mouth, and one over the Hud- 



136 Fort Edward-Baker's Falls. 

son from Northumberland to Greenwich, near the rapids or 
Saratoga Falls, three miles below Fort Miller, 

At Fort Miller is a cliurch, a mill, a tavern, store, and 30 
dwellings, and hereabouts it was that Gen. Burgoyne pass- 
ed his troops over to the west side as he was forcing his way 
down to the gouth, to reach New- York or Albany. 

At Fort Edward, near the great bend of the Hudson as it 
crosses over Glenn's and Baker's Falls, are three locks on the 
canal of 10 feet each, and the ruins of the fort built in 1755, 
by Gen. Lyman and Johnson, at the old landing or carnjing 
place to Wood Creek, The walls were lormerly thirty feet 
high, and defended by cannon, with a deep fosse in front, and 
in the French war was a post of importance as the medium 
and connecting link with Lake George, and here Burgoyne 
and his army waited six weeks for provisions to come on from 
the lake in his rear, and thus lost the best part of the season 
for his military operations. 

Tlie former seat of war and watchfulness is now changed 
to a peaceful and pleasant plain, fair and fertile, with 100 
dwellings, a church, two hotels, a tavern, nine stores, three 
mills, a distillery, and two breweries. 

Tile great dam above the village and ruins of the old forti- 
fication is 27 feet high and 900 feet across the river, and 
throws an ample supply of water into the feeder of the 
canal, besides forming a cascade, from its height and width, 
of considerable magnificence. 

Below the dam is an island and two bridges of 500 feet 
each. The village is supplied with water from a fine spring 
on the hill a quarter of a mile east, near the fatal spot 
that witnessed the tragical death of Miss M'Crea in 1777, that 
was here murdered by the two savages that had been emi)loy- 
ed by her lover to take her to a place ofsafety, and quarreled 
about the promised reward, and in their fury she fell a sac- 
rifice. 

Above the dam, the canal extends twenty-one miles north- 
east to Lake Champlain, at Whitehall, its summit level being 
only 51 feet above the Hudson, and 30 above Lake Cham- 
plain, and 127 feet helow Lake George. 

Baker's Falls commence at the bend of the river where it 
winds around to the south in a deep ravine in the rock of 
limestone, the descent being 7rt feet in 60 rods, the water 
rushing with great fury in and through numerous serpen- 
tine channels and deep excavations that it has bored and 



Sandy Hill— Glenn's Falls. 137 

worn into the rock, but having no perpendicular fall, but a 
variety of chutes, that are exceedingly varied and imposing 
at particular stages of the water, as influenced by the seasons, 
and may he advantajieously viewed from a projecting rock on 
the east shore below the mills. 

Sandy Hill, where the rail-road from Saratog-a to Whitehall 
crosses the Hudson on a viaduct of J, 100 feet long, is a 
half shire village of 110 dwellings on a high sandy plain 
adjacent to Baker's Falls, and is a pleasant and healthy 
site, has a Presbyterian ami Episcopal church with cupolas, 
and two Congregational, a Metliodist and Catholic, ivitliout ; 
there are seven mills, two good hotels, two furnaces, 10 
stores. The streets are arranged upon a triangular plat, 
having an open, ornamented and neat enclosed area, with 
elegant and comfortable houses and the county buildings, 
the courts being held alternately here and at Salem. — 
From this place to Glenn's Falls, three miles west, is a 
road on the high hank of the river, so level, beautiful, and 
pleasant, that few can exceed it, both villages being in sight. 

Glenn''s falls are next encountered ; the village has 130 
dwellings, two churches, the hotel and three taverns, eight 
stores and groceries, 31 mechanics' shops, a printing-office 
and papfr, six lime-kilns, 11 mills, some for sawmg the 
black and variegated marble, that is here found, into slabs, 
and others for lumber and shingles : the marble quarries are 
extensive, and the price is 75 cents the superficial foot 
in New- York. The falls have a total descent of 70 feet, 
at first in one angular mass of 900 feet wide and five 
feet fall, the wliole width of the river, that, M'hen in full 
flood, descends with a grandeur, tumult, and foaming rage, 
that e.xrites awe and admiration in the beholder, as it is con- 
templated from the bridge in passing; at a low stai'e of the 
water the scene is remarkably changed, and could hardly be 
recognized as it })lunges into the crevices, caves and sinuosi- 
ties of the dark and irregularly formed rock, and again issues 
forth in jets and boiling or whirling forms, or glides with ra- 
pidity over slopes worn to a polished snrtace by the ahrasion 
of the waters. The general face and aspect of the fall is to the 
east, and after it shoots under the bridge and partly through 
caves and water-worn excavations under the traveler's i'eet, 
and in seams of the horizontal secondary limestone, well 
worth exploration as the source and scene of legends and 
frightful Indian tales, the water extricates itself from its laby- 
12^ 



138 Jessup^s and Hadley^s Falls. 

rinthine concealments in the dark and massivo rocks, and is 
received into the bed of the river below, under the frowning 
face of impending towering precipices, and escapes over a 
series of rapids that has caused a wide, vast, and deep gorge 
in the rocky hills almost as regular as an artificial cut in the 
solid rock, and exposing the stratification to the easy examina- 
tion of the geologist, and the triiobites and organic remains 
are seen \\\ perfection. 

A leeder and a branch canal seven miles long, extends from 
the Hudson two miles above Glenn's, wiiere is a dam across 
the Hudson of 12 feet high and 770 feet long, that fills 
the canal as it passes through Glennsviile and Sandy Hill, 
and feeds the Champlain Canal, that it enters in Kingsbury, 
two miles above Fort Edward, where there are thirteen locks. 

Jessup''sand Hadlei/s Falls Rre the next distinguished objects 
to attract the attention of the traveler devoted to the admira- 
tion of the picturesque and beautiful in nature. The first is 
ten miles beyond Glenns Falls, and the second occurs within 
the next five miles, and may be conveniently examined by 
starling in the morning either from Sandy Hill or Saratoga, 
and returning the same day, with ample time to spend a few 
hours at either spot. As the country in that direction is rather 
wild and unsettled, it may be advisable to make provision for 
a rural fete champetre to enliven the party. 

The first fall exlnbits the entire volume of the Hudson in 
one grand cataract of 100 feet ; the next it is seen leap- 
ing througlj tlie rocky gates of the mountains, that appear 
to have been cloven to admit its passage ; and to a person 
viewing it from below, it appears to come bounding down tho 
jagged, irregular, gigantic barriers with irrepressible fury, and 
a magnificence and variety endless, bewitching, and inde- 
scribable. 

The road from Luzerne or Glenn's Falls to Lake George is 
a yellow pine plain, soil sandy, rather barren, and destitute of 
interest until we approach within three miles of the head of 
the lake, before overtopping the rising ground seen in front, 
where the road passes by a crater-like or bowl-shaped pond 
on the east, in close proximity, deep, dark, and dismal, its 
unruffled surface covered with the pond-lily, and its depths 
lined with the bones of the soldiers that perished in the con- 
flicts on its borders, and that were here thrown in, and ever 
since called the Bloody Pond. 

In proceeding from Fort Edward to Lakes George and Ch«m- 



Lak» George, 139 

pUin, we pass in review ground consecrated in history, not 
only by the war of our independence and the American revo- 
lution, but also in those murderous affairs and sanguinary 
conflicts of previous years, when the liordesof French troops 
issuing from Canada, aided by infuriate savage demons, car- 
ried terror and destruction along the whole northern frontiers. 

it is our purpose to describe tirst the events and the scene- 
ry connected with Lake George and Ticonderoga, and then 
to give the canal and railroad route from Sandy Hill to 
Whitehall, and down the lake to intersect the other route, and 
pass along its surface and by its shores to Canada. 

The traveler, while musing on the scenes that have been 
enacted on this border within eighty years past, amid the 
gloomy forest through which he proceeds for two or three 
miles, arrives at the crown of a long and tedious ascent, 
through the vista of mountains (hat have accompanied his 
progress for several miles ; those on the east being elevated, 
and in some places denuded of vegetation ; those on the west 
being more depressed, but clothed with the remains of the 
native forest; when at the precise and most advantageous 
pinnacle the curtain of the forest is withdrawn, and the clear- 
ed spot unfolds to the astonished and enraptured gaze of the 
tourist the full and glorious scene. 

The Lake is expanded beneath his view to more than half 
its extent, with a beauty and lustre emanating from its 
surface of a transparent cerulean hue that fills the mind with 
rapture ; the first glance and the deep impression can never 
be obliterated from the imagination of the ardent and sensitive 
traveler; the splendid frame-work of mountains that enclo- 
ses the lake and its beautiful islands, and that forms a back 
ground of extreme beauty and finished excellence, the noble 
promontory that it puts forth on the north, of 1,500 feet high, 
and seen at 14 miles distance, with (he softened hue that 
harmonizes with the receding perspective, terminated on 
each side by the deep bays or prongs that gird, on the north- 
west andnortheast in diverging lines, the base of this noble 
headland or promontory, is the complete realization of eager 
expectations of all that is exquisite in lake scenery. 

Lake George, or Sacrament, as it was termed by the French, 
from the unrivalled and admirable clearness and purity of its 
waters, that induced them to use it for religious purposes, 
baptism, he. is 34 miles long and from one to four broad, 
(average perhaps about two) for 20 miles, is, more orlesi, 



140 Caldwell— Natural Bridge. 

from the promontory referred to, ornamented with an archf-- 
pelago of islands of the most fanciful, varied, and lovely 
form«, that leaves no taste ungratiiled. 

Caldivell — the village at the head of the lake at its south- 
west corner, with its spacious Iiotel, capa!)le of receiving 100 or 
more tourists ; has about 40 dwellings and 500 inhabitants, 
the county huildin2s, clerk's office, jail and court house. 

A road from the south passes through Caldwell to the 
north-west, and in six miles crosses the Hudson River, and 
contin\)es on ten miles to Chester, a village of 150 dwell- 
inns and two churches, with mills, and on the outlet of 
FrieniVs Lake two miles long; from this a road branches off 
north-wpst to Ogdensburgh, on tiie St. Lawrence, and an- 
other north past Scroon Lake, and on the west side of Lake 
Champlain to Plattsbursrh, and is the nearest and best land 
route to Montreal and Quebec, and attracts considerable 
travfd and business in this direction. 

Scroon Lake is eight miles long north-east to south-west, 
and from half to two and a half miles wide, embosomed in 
lofty mountains. Brant or Loon Lake is five miles long, one 
wide, and is south-east of Scroon Lake, 

The Natural Bridge, a mile or two above the outlet of 
Scroon Lake, may be visited at the same time, with the wild 
romantic, shores of the various kikes in its vicinity. A stream, 
named Trout Creek, a few rods above the bridge, tumbles 
over a precipice into an excavation ; there a branch runs east 
and fortns divided channels, one being under an arch of gran- 
ite 40 feet high and 80 feet wide, that niay be followed IGO 
feet, the other and principal one, more difficult of explora- 
tion, opens into dark and cavernous recesses, with deep 
pools of water, and at 250 feet from its brginniner the united 
cui rents emerge to light below a precipice of 56 feet, and 
an arch of five feet hitih and ten wide. 

In 1755 to 1759, when the American Colonies were involv- 
ed in the contest between Great Britain and France, the thea- 
tre of operations shone forth on Lake George, that then exhi- 
bited armaments and a more glittering- array of foreign troops 
than had ever before occurred, or it is destined ever again to 
•witness; and that the sweet repose that now prevails on this 
lahe sljould ever have been disturbed by the din, tumult and 
CO nphcated horrors of a war growing outofihe hatred, feuds 
anil jealous'.es ^ f distant nations, that sent their warriors hith- 
er to enart t>iose feats of arms, and fulfill the bloody, cruel 



liailU'i near Lake George. 141 

mandates of distant rulers and potentates, appears now to 
have been as unnatural as it was surprising. 

The first conflicts took place south of ihe head of Lake 
George, where a body of English and colonial troops had 
been assembled in September, 1755, under the command of 
<Gen. afterwards Sir William Johnson, a man that had a spuri- 
ous, unfounded reputation, and was saved from defeat and 
disgrace by the brave Gen. Lyman, of Massachusetts, the 
second in command. 

Johnson lav carelessly encamped, but unfortified, in open 
field on the hills near the site of Fort M'Henry, a little south 
of the present village of Caldwell ; when Gen. the Baron 
Dieskau, who had recently arrived from France, advanced 
from Montreal up Lake Champlain, passed Fort Frederic, or 
Crown Point, and Ticonderoga, and boldly up to Skenesboro, 
now Whitehall, and landed, and marched towards Fort Ed- 
ward, then called Fort Lyman, on the Hudson, then in an in- 
complete state and without cannon, as he had been truly 
informed by one of his scouts ; but after proceeding a few 
miles and near Fort Anne, he suddenly altered his plan, and 
directed his column towards Lake George to surprise John- 
eon and his army, and was only foiled in this manoeuvre by 
a timely and chance discovery of his change of the line of 
march that reached Johnson, who up to this hour had not 
been aware of the vicinity of an enem.y under such a gallant 
and chivalric commander, and then began in great haste and 
terror to throw up entrenchments around his camp, that was 
injudiciously placed too low, and overlooked and commanded 
by neighboring eminences ; he also dispatched i,200 troops 
under Col. Ephraim Williams, to advance and meet Dieskau 
and his forces, who being aware by his spies of Williams' 
approach, arranged his men on both sides of the road in a 
crescent form, extending his wings into the woods so as to 
enclose his unsuspecting opponents. 

The Americans struck at the centre of the French line with 
unflinching boldness and intrepidity, but they outflanked and 
closed in upon Wiiliams' detachment, and poured in a mur- 
derous fire both on his front and rear at the same moment, 
that killed Col. Williams and Hendrick the brave Mohawk 
Indian chieftain.* The detachment, after the death ofWil- 

* Hendrick was shot in the back, to his exceeding mortification and 
chagrin, it being considered dishonorable to be touched in the rear; ho 
ss'as 65 years ojf age, very corpulent and gray headed ; he had a voice of 



142 Battles near Lake George. 

liams, was drawn off to the main body by Col. Whiting in good 
order, followed by the French and Indians to the lines of 
Johnson's encampment, where the troops recovered from their 
panic, rallied witiiin tlie hasty entrenchments, and the battle 
commenced anew, and lasted several hours, when the French 
and Indians were driven in their turn and pursued and scat- 
tered, and Dieskau badly wounded and taken prisoner, and 
the baggage and annnunition captured. This action was in 
the environs of the Bloody Pond before alluded to, into which 
the dead bodies were thrown — 700 French and 300 English. 

In 1757, the French army of 8000 men under the famous 
Gen. Montcalm, with thousands of Indians, made a formida- 
ble invasion up Lake Champiain, and appeared before Fort 
Wm. Henry, and demanded its surrender from Col. Monroe, 
and was refused, and began the siege that lasted six days, 
the Colonel expecting to be momently relieved by Gen. Webb, 
with 4,000 men at Fort Edward, only fifteen miles distant, 
but he not daring to appear. Col. Monroe, after a brave re- 
sistance, was forced to capitulate under honorable stipula- 
tions, that included protection from savage fury ; but this was 
not observed, for out of the garrison of 3,000, 1,500 were 
massacred in cold blood on the 9th of August. The fort was 
soon after demolished by the French, as they had strong 
works existing at Ticonderoga and Crown Point. 

In 1758, it being desirous to dislodge the French fromtheir 
strong holds at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, the large force 
of 10,000 provincials and 7,000 regular troops was again 
concentrated at the head of Lake George, under the command 
of General Abercronibie, and on the 5tli July, leaving only a 
guard, this formidable force was embarked in over a thousand 
boats, in one of those fine summer days when the genial air 
and the placid lake conspired to aid the gorgeous military 
effect of this grand pageant ; the boats were arranged in lineg 
and divisions in precise order; the lion and the cross, the 
" meteor flag of England,'' was triumphantly exhibited to the 
confident, well-commanded army; and all being arranged, 
the signal was given — they advanced uniformly to the sound 
of the finest military music, that the re-echoing hills returned 
with admirable effect from the glens and forests, as if the 
thick woods were peopled with unseen spirits, startled and 

imtneuse power aud volume, that when he harangued his people, could b®^ 
heard amid the hills for miles, 



Buitlc at Ticonderoga. 143 

a6righted from their deep, romantic, and inaccessible recess- 
es, at the unwonted and strange sights and sounds that 
astounded them. This pomp and splendor continued for se- 
veral hours, during the progress down the lake, giviiig the 
army ample time to look around upon the splendid panorama 
that environed them, and at the approaching place of de- 
barkation, (at the present landing-place,) and at the lurking 
foes they should soon have to encounter. 

They landed and were arranged in four columns, and ad- 
vanced under incoinpetent guides through crooked roads to 
the north-east, and soon fell Jnto some disorder, that was in- 
creased by meeting the pickets and out-posts of the-foe that 
had retreated on the first landing of the army, but seeing the 
confusion that now prevailed in the columns, they rallied, and 
at their first fire Lord Howe,* the second in command, fell ; 
the war-whoop began, and after a warm skirmish, in which 
300 of the foe were killed, and 148 taken prisoners, with 
trifling loss on the English side, the columns retired to 
the landing. 

Taking the precaution the next day to send a force to re- 
connoitre and secure the mill at the outlet of Lake George, 
and to view the enemy and works situated on a peninsula, 
with the lake and outlet nearly environing it, and an abattis 
in part to obstruct the crossing of the isthmus, the army ad- 
vanced heedlessly to the attack, without attempting to can- 
nonade the works, as the abattis was held in too much con- 
tempt ; but on their near approach, and complete exposure 
to the fire of the foe, themselves concealed behind the abattis 
in perfect security, and taking unerring deliberate aim on 
their assailants, the havoc was so great that the English and 
colonial forces gave it up in despair, after a conflict and 
struggle of four hours ; during which the brave Highlanders 
three times drove the French from a portion of the abattis, 
but were not supported. 

The loss of the English in this failure was near 2,000 men ; 
that of the French, three or four officers and a few privates. 
The latter did not at first intend to make but a show of re- 
sistance; but seeing the English so daring, and exposed to 
their mercy, they tned to thin their ranks, and succeeded. 

The English commander ordered a retreat, though he had 
14,000 men unharmed, and the French had only 3,000 ; thus 
voluntarily adding disgrace to defeat. 

* The father of the Lord Howe that commanded here in the American 
revolution. 



J 44 iMke George, 

In July, 1759, another British armament of similar UncSf 
under General Amherst, made its appearance on Lakffl 
George; and at its approach the positions of Ticonderoga 
and Crown Point were abandoned by the French as untena- 
ble, as they doubtlei^s were, as more recent events proved, 
and they abandoned them for ever. 

In 1777, when Ticonderoga and Crown Point were occu- 
pied by the Americans for the last time, as important military 
posts, they abandoned them when General Burgoyne ap- 
proached; and since the revolutionary war, and our froTJtier 
has been so much extended to the north, they are looked 
upon as. almost the only relics and ruins of any note in this 
State that are invested with the garb of a moderate antiquity 
and veneration. 

Fori George, at the head of the lake, still presents its out- 
line and circular massy wall, and ramparts of stone 20 feet 
hiofh, and in good condition, a short distance east from those 
of Fort William Henry, and one-fourth mile back from the 
strand ; and here is also the best view of the widest part 
of the lake, and of the north-west bay, and of the ranges of 
mountains for 20 miles, and of several of the largest islands, 
and of the head promontory before alluded to, and of the 
shelving rock that intrudes from the east far into the lake, 
and beyond which the eastern arm of the lake turns to- 
the right. 

The passage across the lake by steam-boat from Caldwell, 
36 miles north, fare about $2, is made daily, in summer, to 
gratify tourists and travelers ; that at Ticonderoga can inter- 
sect the boat that touches there daily, and continue on up or 
down the lower lake. Those wishing to return to Caldwell 
the same day, can do it by the return of the boat, but stran- 
gers usually devote the remainder of the day to Ticonderoga, 
three miles beyond the landing, and a very agreeable walk 
along the outlet and falls of Lake George, estimated at a 
descent of 150 to 300 feet ; the surface of Lake George is 243 
feet above tide, the greatest depth 60 fathoms ; its sources, 
probably, from the deepest, coldest, and purest springs, as it 
has no rivers of any consequence running into it. 

The lake is frozen about 25th December, and remains 
closed usually three and a half or four months, when, without 
sinking, as it does in Lake Champlain, the ice gradually dis- 
solves. There is no current, except near the outlet, and the 
shores being rocky or gravelly, the water is pure and potable, 



Excursion on Lake George. 14i 

and has no lime; the borders are the seat of health, and fever 
and ague is a stranger. Tlie melting ofthe snowin spring only 
raises the lake one or two feet. The prevalent winds are N. E. 
and S. VV, There are more settlements on the west than 
on the east side of the lake on the slopes, from a few rods 
to a mile wide, reaching up tiie mountain, that will, some 
future day, be decked out all in terraces and villas, for it is im- 
possible that such charming sites should be always neglected. 
Deer and bears still abound on the moiintains, and the 
depths of the lake with the largest and Snest trout, bass, and 
perch, and the lofty cliffi of the hills and crags with eagles 
and rattlesnakes; and for these Mount Prospect has an espe- 
cial bad name, that is to be regretted, as it is said to command 
a capital view of the lake, and between the dread of one and 
the love of the other, "de gusiibus non est disputandem." 



Excisrsioii osi JLake Oeor§:e. 

Every traveler in making an excursion on this lake, if he 
'js favored with a proportion of suitable weather, clear and 
-cloudy, fair and foul, to see the changes of the scene, the 
'lights and shades, and hear the effect of echos from a heavy 
thunder-storm reverberated from the amphitheatre of moun- 
'iains, will enroll it in the calendar of his life as one of th« 
most memorable epochs of his existence. 

On putting out from the village on the broad surface of the 
pellucid crystal waters of the lake, the enjoyment begins by 
the contemplation of the surrounding panorama, the noble 
mountains on the east, with their deep shadows reflected in 
the water-mirror at tiieir base, the graceful slopes on the 
west, and the border on the south, with the acclivity covered 
with a fine green sward, interspersed with groups of forest- 
trees, and a handsome sprinkling of evergreens. The time- 
worn battlements of Forts George and William Henry, half 
shrouded in moss and shrubbery, are invested with a hallowed 
interest from the associations of the stirring events of by-gone 
days of war and chivalry that those walls and the pinnacles 
of the adjacent mountains have witnessed. 

The islands and shores soon come in for a large share of 

the tourist's admiration. The beauty, variety, and grace of 

the curves of the finely wooded margin of the lake, with 

forests and groves rising at various angles, or overshadowing 

13 



146 Ttcelve Mile Island. 

and formuig nalural arbors of the many recesses and /nder^ 
tations that arc presented in endless variety on both shores 5 
the deep umbrageous twilig^ht effect of some masses of trees 
and underwood, is contrasted with the more open and gay 
lawns and groves, that aj)pear prepared for the rural fete or 
merry dance. The smooth slopes and cheerful borders, that 
are already partially occupied by the |)rirnitive settlers, or 
their immediate descendants, and that have made themselves 
rudely comfortable and happy in the rough log-hut or more 
finished tenement, extend for mile;?, and are followed by pro- 
montories encroaching boldly into the lake, and forbidding 
access to the husbandman. The pomts are varied, acute, and 
angular, gliding into rounded and circular, followed by fretted 
ami scolloped margins, or a beach of bright yellow, or golden, 
or light-colored sand, displaying the purity and transparency 
of the waters, and tempting the feet of the nymph to tread its 
unsullied margin, or to bathe in its soft, and shining, or glis- 
tening waters. 

The spurs, or angles of the mountains, at times intrude far 
out in the lake, and are covered with the native forest; and 
at others are but long- narrow ridges stretching horizontally, 
or with a graceful declination to meet the surface of the wa- 
ters; or they assume the appearance of islands m the loom- 
ing up of the distant perspective. 

After continuing on for ten miles, a bare spot, denuded of 
its forest and shrubbery, is observed, where the hunters are in 
the habit, annually, of setting fire to the last year's dry grass, 
to admit of the new growth of the spring to come forth, and 
tempt the deer from their haunts, that soon after are seen to 
frequent it in herds, when the noisy yelping of the hounds, 
and the sharp crack of the rifles, are heard echoing and faintly 
responding from amid the distant hills. These fires sometimes 
range uncontrolled in the forest, and have a sad and destruc- 
tive influence on the landscape, but at night the effect of one 
of these conflagrations is truly sublime. 

'^l\celve Mile Island, so called from its computed distance 
from the head of the lake, is 35 feet in elevation, contains 
over 20 acres, and is very near the centre of the lake, and of 
a circular form, and only requires to be preserved in all its 
pristine beauty. 

Beyond this round island, the lake in one mile divides into 
two prongs, that to the left being the north-west bay, six miles 
long, and the other the northeast bay leading to the outlet 



Fairy Group of Islands. 147 

and landing"; between the two prongs rises the noble heaH- 
Sand or promontory of Tongue Mountain to a heigiit of 1,400 
feet, that abuts boldly forth, and lords it over the opposite 
heights, and looks <1owr upon the lake that at its base has a 
doptii of several hundred feet, and upon the clustering islands 
that here begin and form the narrows, for six or seven miles. 
The mountain can be ascended from the rear, but at great 
risk of reptiles and being bewildered in the forest; but the 
view from the summit is surpassingly beautiful. 

The Fairy Group of Islands now thicken as we proceed, 
and assume infinite variety in shape and feature; some i>eing 
in groups, or families, of five to twenty or thirty, or twin-like, 
or iii solitary beauties, standing out for admiration, or more 
coyly retiring from the public gaze, and requiring to be sought 
out from the concealments of the labyrinth, ever changing, 
ever new, to the enchanted beliolder, that delights to repeat 
bis explorations as he discovers new beauties at every repeti- 
tion of his visit as he lingers among these embowered Borro- 
mean isles. 

There are such an infinity of forms of beauty in their figure 
and dimensions, that nature appeain, as it is in truth, inex- 
baustible in resources; some are mere islets or naked rocks, 
in contrast with tufted and brilliant verdant spots, of a tew 
feel to a furlong or a mile in length ; the vegetation of some 
is scanty, but in most it is perfect ; some have but a tree or 
two, or are decorated with a feathery group, inclining like the 
princes gracefully towards the surrounding margin ; some are 
dense with iorest or shrubbery, others admit of winding paths 
beneath o'ertopping trees, shaded from the noon-day sun, and 
free from undergrowth; others, as the boat insinuates and 
glides too rapidly past long and narrow islands, presents, for 
a moment, apertures that disclose the near or more distant 
mountains, or a giim[)seof sky, or of objects and forms beau- 
tiful, evanescent, and magically changing as they are ap- 
proached but to be admired and lost in the rapid transition. 

The pine, with its tall trunk peering above all competitors, 
waving loftily and nobly in the sky, occupies many such 
positions; while on other islands the mnple, the beech, or the 
oak, m liveliest verdure, and in the wild luxuriance of native 
vigor have uncontrolled domiidon, orare seen in various stages 
of decay, or scathed and splintcrerl by lightning. The whole 
scene is doubly enhanced by the unruffled mirror that inverts 
ihe forms above, of islands, trees, rocks, and winding shores 



148 Anihomfs Nose. 

in the sky-reflected arch beneath, depicted with the truth ant! 
coloring of nature. 

If the admeasurement is correct, Black Mountain that is on 
the east, eighteen miles from Cald^^ell^ is the hiohest crest of 
any of the range bordering the lake, being 2,200 feet high, and 
in front of it on the west, is the lialf way iiouse or island ; and 
here the traveler will behold, in the next few miles, \i>e 
choicest lake scenery. 

The mountain has a serrated waving outline of much gran- 
deur, and is densely clothed vvilh evergreens, pines, and firs. 

On a projection from the west shore, 24 miles from the 
head of tlie lake, is a prominent point named from a party of 
English havins: had a conflict with the Indians on that day, 
Sabbalfi-day Point. The small island, called the Saolch Bon- 
net, is seen in three miles ; and in three miles more a cluster 
of dwellings and mills, known as Hague, on the west shore, 
and here the lake attains its utmost width, said to. be 4 miles. 

Three miles further the traveler will notice a rock of 200 
feet high, descending to the lake at an angle of 25 degrees,, 
and decidedly more easy of descent than ascent ; and the tra- 
dition is, that in the war of 1755 to 9, Major Ragers, a partir- 
zan officer, equal to Putnam in intrepidity and hatred to the 
Indians, and being their most vindictive enemy and persecu- 
tor, found himself, when pursued and nearly in their grasp, on 
the verge of this inclined plane at the top of the mountain, 
down which (it being probably covered with snow, as he had 
liis snow-shoes on, and had no alternative) he slid, without 
flinching, just as his pursuers W'ere upon him,, and left them 
standing aghast and shrinking from following his nimble 
footsteps, and beholding with amazement his charmed life, as 
he appeared in safety at the base of the precipice, down 
which they dared not follow. 

Anlhonifs Nose, one of those singular nicknames, and such 
Ji noted and peculiar prominence on the Mohawk, and on the 
profileof a jutting rock and mountain in the Highlandst of the 
Hudson, is also found here in opposite face to the Rogers^ 
Slide ; the precipices are 50 to 100 (cet in elevation, and the 
shores contracted amid gigantic masses of reck. Two miles 
from the above is an island where the prisoners that were 
taken from the French were put upon the limits, and west of 
the island is the point wiiere the Englisli army under Lord 
Howe, consisting of 16,00J men, were landed and marched to 
the attack of Ticonderoga, as mentioned. 



Ticonderuga. 149 

A huge rock fell from (he precipice at Anthony's Nose, a 
few years since, and plunging into the lake, came very near 
demolishing' a fisherman and sinking a canoe by tlie surge 
!t created. 

On a rock opposite to this are said to be a series of Indian 
mortars wrought in tiie solid slone, for pounding their corn. 
Some of them are capable of containing half a barrel, and 
others of smaller size, smooth and circular. 

The water of the Jake that has, up to this point, been of an 
emerald green, now changes to a muddy color, from the dif- 
ference in bottom, that is here clay instead of rock as above ; 
and in one mile we are at the termination of our Excursion on 
Lake George, or Horricon, as the Indian name is transmitted. 
Three miles more by the rough and winding romantic road 
before alluded to, along the gorge that contains the outlet of 
the lake we have traversed, brings the traveler in sight of 
Lake Champlain, and to the walls of old Ticonderoga. 

The change in scenery when we descend to the lake below, 
is as obvious as that of the water. There are three falls in the 
outlet of the upper lake ; the lowest one being 100 feet, with 
a rapiil at the bottom, and in spring they exhibit much mag- 
nificence: at other times they are small but pleasing cascades. 
The bottom of the upper is about on a level with the surface of 
the lower lake. By following up the creek that comes in from 
the west near where the steamer is left, we come to a chain 
of small lakes near lake Pharaoh, that falls into Swan Lake, 
one of the heads of the north-east branch of the Hudson 
Kiver. 

Cke-on-der-oga, by the Indian phrase, noise, was by the 
French changed into Ticonderoga, and was also by them 
named Fort Carillon, after its erection in 1756; it cost the 
French government a large sum of money, and was consider- 
ed to be very strong both by nature and art, being surrounded 
on three sides by water, and by a deep swamp on part of the 
other, and a breastwork on the remainder; but it was subse- 
quently easily reduced by the simple expedient adopted by 
Burgoyne, that had been before strangely overlooked, of haul- 
ing a piece of artillery up the pinnacle of Mount Defiance 725 
feet high, on the south side of the creek that overlooks and 
entirely commands the fort, and from which a shot can with 
ease be thrown into the midst of the works, that had been pro- 
bably supposed to be too distant to be injured in that way; 
but at the siege of Gibraltar shot were thrown 4| miles, and 
13* 



150 Mount Independence. 

by the French at the siege of Cadiz bombs were thrown even 
six miles, and perhaps more 

Mnnnt Independence, where some intrenchments are yet 
visible, is on the opposite or cast shore of the lake, distant 
one mile, with a ferry in the tovvnshipof Orwell, Vermont, is 
of diminished height, an<l overlooks the peninsula of Ticon- 
deroga, thouwh that land is 110 feet above the lake, and J9G 
above xWe. Ochre, used as pigments in mailing yellow and 
red paints, and also plumbago or black lead, are found at tiie 
base of Mount Defiance. The village, at the head of the 
falls, consist injfT of a ^ew houses and mills, is Alexandria ; the 
one at the lower falls, one mile, is Ticonderoga, and has a 
post-office. The peninsula contains about 500 acres. The 
walls and chimnies yet remain, in part, as venerable ruins of 
the barracks and fort, as also does the magazine, 35 feet long, 
15 wide, and 8 high, of stone, arched and forming a complete 
bomb-proof under earth ; there is also a covered way and 
sallyport forming a subterranean passage from the south- 
west corner of the old fort to the lake, the identical passage 
that Col, Ethan Allen, of Vermont, entered in 1775, and 
surprised the commandant in bed before he was aware of 
his danger, and iu his characteristic way required the officer 
to surrender. He replied, " To whom ?" " Why to Jehovah 
and the Continental Congress, lo be sure," was the quaint 
reply. This was the first fortress captured by the Americans 
in the war of the revolution. 

The remains of another fortification, erected during the 
revolutionary war. are 60 rods south, on a point near the lake, 
and the walls are 60 feet high. 

The most important events, connected with this fortress, 
by which so many thousands of human beings have been 
■wantonly, and rashly, and inhumanly exposed and sacrificed 
in the campaign of 1768, under General Abercrombie, have 
been fully detailed in our preceding pages. In 1759 the 
French evacuated this post, that they had, with Fort Frederic 
or Crown Point, first endowed with military importance, and 
had expended on both vast treasures of men and money ; 
that they tamely quitted as the powerful armament of Lord 
Amherst approached and took possession, and it so remained 
for 16 years, when the American revolution breaking out, it 
was captured without bloodshed by Colonel Allen, as before 
mentioned, in 1775, and held till 1777, when the British army 
appeared in array before it, under the gallant Burgoyne, when 



St. Clair. 131 

St. Clair, the American commander, M'as forced to evacuate 
in his turn, and it fell into British possession, and was held 
during- the war. 

St. Clair dispatched tlie baggage and stores by a detach- 
ment up the lake to Whitehall, and was followed by the Bri- 
tish in ifnll pursuit to Fort Anne, where a skirmish ensued ; 
but the forces under St. Clair crossed the lake to Mount In- 
dependence, and directed their march upon Hubberlon, Ver- 
mont, where Colonel Warner, with 1,000 men, w^as overtaken 
and brought to action by the advanced ijuard of the British, 
and were vanquished, and retired to Fort Edward, on the 
Hudson, to unite with General Schuyler. In modern times 
Ticonderoga and Crown Point are only adverted to as hav- 
ing once been an important place in American history, a spe- 
cies of " points d'appui," that held the keys of the lakes on 
which the movements of fleets and armies must take place. 

After finishing Lake George and Ticonderoga, the tourist 
can take the steam-boat at Shoreham, in Vermont, one mile 
east of Ticonderoga, and return to the south by the way of 
Whitehall and the stage route through to Troy, or take the 
cars for Sandy Hill, or proceed from Shoreham to Kutland 
and Windsor, Vermont, and up or down the charming valley 
of Connecticut River, or continue on for the north down Lake 
Champlain to Plaltshurgh and St. John's, and thence to Mon- 
treal and Quebec. The downward stearn-boat from Whitehall 
usually calls at Shoreham, in the summer, before dark, but 
from Crown Point to Plattsburgh, 46 miles, the passage is 
made at night, there not being a line of day-boats. The price 
of passage from Whitehall to St. John's, 160 miles, is So. 

We now return back to trace our route from page 145, 
where we diverged from the regular route to give our readers 
the popular lake tour. 

Leaving Sandy Hill in the cars or stages, we cross the sum- 
mit level, or height of land between the Hudson River and 
the water running north, and in a short distance the northern 
canal that we meet at Fort Ann, the village so named, 10 
miles from Sandy Hill and 1 1 from Whitehall, and on the site 
of the old fort erected in 1756. It contains 60 dwellings, three 
churches, two taverns and stores, and is surrounded by a roll- 
ing forested country; and two miles south may be seen ves- 
tiges of the military road of logs made in 1777 for the trans- 
port of the artillery, baggage, and stores of Burgoyne's army 
to Saratoga. 



152 GriswohVs Mills— Comstock— Whitehall. 

Grisw&ld's Mills is on Half-way Brook, four miles west of 
Fort Ann, and six north of Sandy Hill, and has 30 dwellings, 
one grist, one saw-mill, two stores, one tavern, several forges 
for making- anchors, a trip hammer, a furnace for castings, a 
pottery, and a woollen factory. 

Comstock, a landing on the canal, is four miles nortli from 
Fort Ann, and is a place of much hnsiness, and has the trade 
of the vicinity and east part of Vermont; and several vvare- 
honses, a post-otfice, tavern, store, and 10 or 12 dwellings. 
Canal-boats are also built here. 

The canal enters Wood Creek, and for Gh miles pursues its 
channel. There are three locks at Fort Ann, fall 24 feet into 
Wook Creek. Jn 4i miles is ihe narrows, and in three more is 
the dam in Wood Creek to supply the canal to Whitehall, and 
make the creek navigable three miles al)ove to the dam-lock ; 
and in five miles more we arrive at WhUehall, at the head of 
Lake Champlain, TSi miles from Alliany, wliere thecanal'ter- 
minates, and has three locks and a fall of 26 feet, and in all 
from summit level 54, to the basin in Lake Champlain, and 
30 to the Hudson at Fort Edward. 

There are pots, or water-worn cavities in the hard gneis 
rock at the narroios on Wood Creek, near 50 feet above its 
present level, that clearly indicate tiie former existence of a 
much larger body of water discharging itself north through 
the depression of Lake Champlain; and as the Hudson, at 
Sandy Hill, is only 126 feet above tide at Troy, a surmise ex- 
ists that this current from the Hudson to the St. Lawrence 
formerly obtained, or the dividing ridge may have been up- 
heaved by earthquakes. 

Wkitehall, formerly Skenesborough, 73 miles from Alba- 
ny, has 150 dwellings, a bank, many warehouses for the 
commission and forwarding trade, two large hotels, 20 gene- 
ral stores, and 2,500 inhabitants ; a Presbyterian and a Me- 
thodist church, and Societies of Universalists, Catholics, and 
Baptists. It commands the steamboat business from thesouth 
down tiie lake, and the canal trade, and also that of a con- 
siderable region around. A steam-boat leaves daily during 
the season for St. John's, Canada, 150 miles distant, touching 
at the several landings. 

This place has much of the aspect of a port, and there are 
many sloops owned here, canal- boats, &c. There is not much 
room for wide streets, as it is in a defile and very restricted. 
The houses are of the stone that is quarried on the spot, and 



WhUehalL 153 

many may be said *o rise out of their cellars on knolls aiuS 
elevations, and others at the edge of the harbor. 

The Aboriginal name of this place was Kah-cho-qua-na, the 
j)lace to dip feet, at the fool of the lalls near the village where 
the Wood Creek, and Pawlet River unite. Here may be seen 
rotting- in the mud the useless hulks of the vessels captured 
by Commodore M'Donough from the British, during the last 
war, in the action off Plattsburgh and Cumberland Head. 

The Poultney River that comes in from the north, and that 
has its source in Rutland County, Vermont, at the l)ase of the 
Green Mountains, and in the Lake Bombazine, in Castleton, 
five miles long, in 1783 made for itself a new channel by an 
impetuous rush of water, the result of some outbursting of a 
mountain lake, or of a water-spout that forced and cut iis way 
60 feet deep through a ridge, and carrying so large a quantity 
of earth into the east bay, as to choke up, for a season, its 
navigation. 

From Fort Ann to Whitehall, 1 1 miles, the canal runs side by 
side with Wood Creek, so near that a pistol shot will reach 
either, and we here see the truth of the principle of Brindley, 
the engineer of the Duke of Bridgcwater's canal, who being 
questioned before the House of Commons, what bethought 
rivers were made for, replied, "to feed navigable canals ;" 
anfi although the channel of Wood Creek is actually used for 
canal purposes for six or seven miles, yet as it has a strong 
current difficult to stem in coming from Whitehall, the canal 
is preferable. At one remarkable spot the road j)asses over, 
for several hundred feet, the surface of a bare rock, called the 
" DeviVs Dining Table.^'' There is a variety of hill and dale, 
barren rocks, swamps, tracts of clay, alluvion, and of rich 
mould in this county. 

At Whitehall Burgoyne destroyed the American flotilla in 
1777, and the baggage and stores of the American army, and 
had his head quarters for some time, while his troops were 
forming a road and clearing obstructions (that the Americans 
had prepared to oppose their progress,) to enable him to get 
on with his army and materiel the short distance to Fort 
Edward, and to accomplish this he spent so much time, and 
subsequently in camp at Fort Edward in waiting for his 
provisions, artillery, &c. to arrive from Whitehall, that the 
Americans had time to rally their militia from all quarters, 
and poured in her hardy mountaineers frora Vermont, New 



154 Short Tours near New- York. 

Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut, and soon turned 
back the current of invasion. 

The remains of an intrenchment thrown up at that time by 
the Enplisli, may yet be seen on the hill overlooking the basin, 
she village, and the falls of Wood Creek, and the canal and 
locks tliat are compressed side by side; nature versus art. 
A path leads to the summit; there is a bridge over Wood 
Creek. 

The rocks are beautifully stratified in horizontal and per- 
pendicular lines, similar to masonry, and this is seen in oilier 
places as we pass on. 

'J'he summit of Skene's Mountain at Whitehall is 588 feel. 



^hort ToHrs Eiear I^ew-Yoali. 

A few suggestions as to the many cheap and agreable ex- 
cursions, lides, tours, &c. that are j)resente(l to the stranger 
in the vicinity of this metropolis, having but a (ew hours or 
days to allot for this purpose, may be useful to many of our 
readers. 

Long Island may be viewed cursorily by a ride in the rail- 
road cars starting from the Battery, and crossing the south 
ferry at nine o'clock in the moining to Atlantic-street, having 
a glim[)se at a portion of Brooldyn and of its suburbs, the 
Navy Yard, Marine Hospital, and then by Bedford and across 
the hills, the scene of the battle of August, 1776, when the 
Amcricanf? were defeated by the British, and ]New-York was 
captured, — the traveler will have in view soon after starting 
the meadows to the south, and the mill at Gowanus and the 
hUls adjacent, where Gen. Sullivan was captured, and in that 
vicinity is now forming an ornamental enclosure of 200 acres, 
the Greenwood Cemetery, on the most beautitid plan, even 
now worth a visit, and when matured, destined to be of pow- 
erful attraction. 

The train dashes through the Bedford and Flatbush hills, 
and the deep cut of the summit level, and the dense woods 
that cover the surface for a mile or two, when, on attaining- 
the (aco of the level plain skirting the base of the hills that 
rrend north-east and south-west, the view is momentarily 



Jamaica— Rockaicay, l-iS* 

ighted up, and suddeuiy extended to the south-east, and the 
;ye glancing over and around the fertile fields in view, be- 
lolds in the remotest distance the waters of the Atlantic 
Ocean; but as the level of the road is soon depressed as 
ve skim onward to the east, the view becomes limited and 
confined, and the train is for a few seconds slackened at the 
loted Union Race Course, where fields and fortunes are lost 
md won ; where the Eclipses and Henrys^ and the favorites 
)f the sporting field for the day and hour, pass in rapid suc- 
•ession before the bewildered gaze of thousands at such times 
issembled. 

Tii'3 extensive, and remarkable, and prairie-like surface 
low beheld, continues east for 80 miles. The rail-road at pre- 
lent terminates at Hicksvillc,^! miles from Brooklyn ; and in 
massing onward and through the borders of the silent and 
)leasant village of Jamaicaand residences that abound in this 
■ural, pleasant, smiling, and rich country, we pass the late 
esidence of that distinguished statesman Rufiis King, situ- 
(ted near the main road on the north, embowered in trees 
md shrubbery (after entering the village) in the vicinity of 
he Episcopal church. 

Rockaicmj, a celebrated bathing-place on the sea shore, 
line miles south of Jamaica, may soon be reached, and here 
s an extensive erection, the Marine Pavillion, that when open 
o the public gives accommodation for hundreds, and from 
ts galleries and colonades, and front of 225 feet, a conspicu- 
)us view of the grar^deur of the heaving, tumultuous, Atlantic, 
vith its foaming billows curling, dashing, and thundering on 
he hard sandy beach, beneath the eye of the delighted 
ouiist. 

A branch of the Long Island rail-road extends three miles 
o Hempstead on the plains of that name; it is a small but 
ively village of over a hundred houses. 

The tourist can extend his visit to Oyster Bay on Long 
sland Sound, 10 or L5 miles north of Hicksville, and return 
rom thence to New- York by steam- boat, or get to Flushing 
m!y five miles north of Jamaica, and visit Prince's extensive 
grounds and korticidliiral establishment, and the fine old oak 
rees near by, venerated by the society of Friends or Quakers, 
IS having shaded, about 200 years since, George Fox, a cele- 
»rated preacher of their persuasion ; and in leaving that place 
)y steam-boat at seven in the morning or three in the afier- 
loon, soon after passing through the celebrated rocky, virinJ- 



156 Long' Island Excursion. 

ing channel at the western extremity of Long Island Sound, 
termed Hurlgale, the boat touches at Halleti's Cove, (now 
Astoria,) and here let the tourist step on shore, and visit the 
beautiful residence and horticultural and floral establishment 
of Mr. Grant Tkorburn, (the Lawric Todd of one of Gait's? 
novel?,) and after examining his extensive green-houses, and 
enjoying his peculiar colloquial talents, and viewing the 
neighboring grounds and the extensive public editices on 
BlackiveW$ Island, in front the Lunatic Jlsylum and the large 
Penitentiary, the tourist can cross the ferry from Halleti's 
i;ove, and walk up the hill through 86th-street to the 4th ave- 
nue at the summit bridge, and either take the rail-road cars to 
go through the Tunnel to Harlem, two miles north, and see 
Hall's garden and embellished grounds, or return to the city. 

The Lo7ig Island Excursion, far as Jnvinica, and the visit 
to Flushings and to Mr. Thorburn's, may be effected between 
nine A. M. and six P.M. — expense $1 50 — if to Hicksviile 
and Oyster Bay, the expense may be doubled. 

The ride from New- York or Brooklyn, over the hills to 
Flatbush, and to the sea-beach of Coney Island; and to Balh, 
(where the British troops landed in 1776 under cover of the guns 
of their fleet, that lay moored in a crescent form,) and thence 
taking the road to Fort Hamilton, at the narrows, and by the 
margin of the harbor of New- York, will make a circuit of 20 
to 25 miles, and give the utmost gratification, 

A few hours should be devoted to an excursion in a car- 
riage, or on foot, around the hills of Staten Island, 6 to 10 
miles distant, touching at New Brighton, the narrows and 
driving on the elevated terrace past the residences of John 
Anthon and Grymes. 

The Falls of the Passaic, and the large manufacturing vil- 
lage of Patterson, 16 miles to the north-west, may be reached 
in an hour by starting from Powles Hook in the rail-road cars. 

Hohoken, on the Jersey shore, IVeekawken, and Fort Lee. 
are in 2 to 10 miles, and may hourly be seen and reached 
by steam-boats. 




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